American fans of campy pop music, outrageous outfits and petty geopolitics were able to rejoice on Monday, with the news that the US will soon launch its own Eurovision-style music competition.
The extravaganza, prosaically titled American Song Contest, will see musicians from all 50 states, five US territories and Washington DC compete against each other, in a format borrowed from its long-running European cousin.
Beyond the musical offerings, the show presents the mouth-watering prospect of seeing how politically and culturally opposed states rate the musical output of their rivals, a key component of the Eurovision Song Contest’s enduring popularity.
Texas and New York represent an early example of how traditionally conservative and liberal Americans could voice their mutual dislike of one another, in a scenario familiar to anyone who has seen countries such as Russia shun western European songs – however pleasant their melodies – over the years.
It also represents a chance for states to show their admiration for one another. In Europe the Scandinavian countries tend to award each other high points, while other, more complicated, allegiances exist within countries of the former Soviet Union.
In times of geopolitical strife, countries perceived as bad actors have struggled, including the UK following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In the US the anti-mask and vaccine-skeptic crusade led by Ron DeSantis, Florida’s self-advancing governor, could turn people against singers from the Sunshine state.
The Eurovision Song Contest has gained millions of fans over the decades, some of whom engage with the contest ironically, since it first launched in 1956. The contest consists of two lesser-watched semi-finals before an all-night final, but the American version, hosted by Snoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson, will stretch over eight weeks after it begins in March.
In the European competition a country’s votes are decided partly by a jury of music industry heads and partly a public vote. NBC, the network which will host American Song Contest, is yet to reveal its exact format.
Eurovision has sometimes served as a place for progressive statements. In 1998 Dana International, a transgender singer from Israel, won the contest, and in 2019 two gay men were featured on the broadcast’s kiss cam, delighting supporters of LGBTQ equality.
But the contest has also served as an expression of displeasure. In 2016 Ukraine won with a song about Joseph Stalin’s deportation of Crimean Tartars. Russia, which had invaded and annexed Crimea, in Ukraine, two years earlier, was furious.
Away from politics, American Song Contest could see a clash of musical styles. The country music popular in parts of the south, defined by its songs about beer and pickup trucks and sometimes traditional roles for women, might be pleasing to Tennessean ears, but it is a genre that fares less well further north.
Recent polls, elections and political fights have highlighted the state of America’s yawning societal divides, raising the potential that warring factions could detract from the actual singing and dancing on screen.
But the show’s creators insist that music could help America heal in troubled times.
“When America is more factionalised than ever and we are dealing with so many issues that divide us, the one [thing] that truly unites us is our culture,” Ben Silverman, the show’s executive producer told the NME.
He added, perhaps optimistically: “[American Song Contest] can unite it by celebrating its diversity, its distinctions and in pulling everyone around its love of music and its love of song.”
