From where to watch to how to cast your vote, here's what Canadians need to know about this year's Eurovision competition.The Eurovision Song Contest is not your average singing competition. It’s campy, extravagant and can be an eyebrow-raising experience for first-time viewers.
Geographic proximity and cultural similarities come into play during the votes, says Paul David Flood, a PhD candidate at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in New York, where he studies Eurovision. Countries can’t vote for themselves, but some are accused of favouring each other.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Eurovision continued to play a political and cultural role for newly independent nations in the nineties, Flood adds. “Eurovision became a tool for them to craft their national identity as modern and as being able to keep up culturally with Western Europe.”