The Nation on Stage
The Eurovision song contest gives countries the opportunity to represent themselves to millions of viewers worldwide through a three-minute performance. Observing Portugal's three entries from the years 2014-2017, the execution and details of the performance can tell a lot about the country. It’s been a continuing tradition that the singers chosen to perform sing their songs in the Portuguese language and have songs that revolve around the subject of love. Going more in depth to each performance, we can reveal more of the techniques Portugal uses to portray their identity.
Representing Portugal in 2014, Suzy Guerra performed “Quero Ser Tua” (2014) with a very happy and upbeat performance. The composer, Emanuel, wrote the song to be about a person longing for love and had the intention of executing it in a fun manner that would have the audience dancing along. To achieve his vision of the song, he combined African and Latino musical influences (“Time to dance with Suzy from Portugal”, 2014). In the lyrics, “I want to be yours Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh” and other verses such as, “I want to be your passion cupid/I want to be the owner of your heart,” it’s interpreted that it’s talking about the person longing to be loved by the one they admire. Compared with Suzy’s dancing and happy facial expressions, it’s further shown that the person the song is referring to is hopeful that they’ll be with the person whom they admire in the future.
The visual aspects of the performance explode with symbolism to Portugal. Looking particularly at the background and stage LED’s, the colors of Portugal are easily recognizable. Also revolving in the background were yellow spheres that have similar features to the curved yellow armillary spheres on the country's flag. With all the Portugal references and colors being flashed, I can assume that the audience is aware of how prideful Portugal feels in their country. Performing on stage, Suzy was followed by two female backing performers, two male backing dancers playing large drums on opposite sides of the stage, and another male backing performer playing a small drum known as djembe. Looking closely at the drums being played, the two larger ones resemble an instrument known as taiko, which originated from Japan and the smaller drum being held is a djembe which originated from Western Africa (Yoon, 2001), (Price, 2013). It’s been a popular occurrence in past Eurovision acts to include a type of drum as an instrument on stage being played by muscular men. I can assume that it’s there to make the visual aspect more interesting however, it could also be interpreted as cultural appropriation. Implementing the drums into a song that is far from their origin could have a negative response from some viewers however, it’s highly unlikely that the Eurovision audience interpreted it this way. Overall, Suzy’s bright performance gives Portugal the vision of a spirited and happy place to be which contrasts differently to the performance that will be discussed next.
Singing the pop-rock song “Ha Um Mar Que Nos Separa” (2015), Leonor Andrade represented Portugal for the 2015 competition. Andrade stood in the middle of the stage in an all-black outfit and had four backing singers in the darkened background which gave off a mysterious setting. Using her strong vocals with serious facial and body expressions, audience members could see how emotionally connected she felt to the song. Gradually building towards the finale, white lights cascaded across the audience as she powerfully belts out the final lyrics. Andrade herself described the song as showing strong passion, romance, and heartbreak. The lyrics, “I try to straighten up/No will to do it at all/I’m not myself/If you’re not around”, explains the sadness the person feels from not being with their lover. Exemplified in the chorus, “If it’s the sea that separates us/I will dry it with longing/And press you against my chest/In a kiss made of yearning”, it goes deeper into discussing the struggles of long distance relationship that the people are having. On the surface, it seems like a typical love song however, the composer, Miguel Gameiro, wrote the lyrics with the intention of making it about people who have been forced to travel abroad to find jobs outside of Portugal (Escudero, 2015). The song title, “There is a sea the separates us”, now translates to have a deeper meaning than what was first interpreted as a long-distance romance. Portugal has struggled with unemployment and the emigration of young adults for quite a long time (Almeida, 2007). Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelhos commented that unemployed should think of emigrating and looking for work abroad. Many young graduates took the advice and emigrated in hopes of building a financially stable life (Wise, 2012). With many of these young adults leaving their loved ones, the song can be relatable to many of the listeners originating from Portugal and other countries facing similar issues. This song also echoed the Romanian entry during the same year. “De Le Capat” (2015) was sung by artist Voltaj who also addressed the issue of emigration. A noticeable difference between the two songs was that Andrades talked more about love between two people while Voltaj’s spoke of parents who had to leave their children behind with relatives to support their families back at home. With two songs from the 2015 contest both describing emigration, it suggests it was an important theme that year and a problem that the countries wanted to bring attention to. Both performances were excellent at allowing for the emotional aspects of the song to be felt and it was seen how connected Andrade was to her song.
Choosing to not participate in the year 2016, the 2017 Eurovision song contest was a special year for Portugal. Singing “Amar Pelos Dois” (2017), Salvador Sobral won the competition and gave Portugal its first victory after fifty years of participation (Zwart, 2017). The mellow ballad featured Sobral standing on a smaller stage in the middle of the crowd with a single spotlight glued to him. There weren’t any bright or flashy factors to his performance which differed drastically from the past two entries from Portugal. His song was accompanied by a piano and violin and the simplicity of the performance left the audience silent. At first listen, I assumed the song conveys a softer emotional feeling towards love seeing that it was already a recurring topic from the past two entries. Indeed, it does talk about love and Salvador’s expresses this through his performance by using hand motions and facial expressions. This shows how absorbed he is with the song which made it feel more personal for the audience. Shown through the lyrics “My love/Listen to my pleas/I beg you to come back/To want me again”, it talks of a lost love and how the person is begging for their significant other to return. This can be further proven by the lyrics, “I know/That one can’t love by oneself/But maybe with time/You will learn to love me as well”. The jazz song was different in music genres compared to the usual pop or electronic songs performed that year. Sobral’s sister Luisa said, “For a song like this to win, it’s celebrating diversity” (Jordan, 2017). With the uniqueness of the execution of the performance and song choice, Portugal earned its winning fairly.
From the three Portugal performances in the Eurovision contest through the years of 2014-2017, there were many similarities. Firstly, all the entered songs were in Portuguese. We can presume that Portugal is proud of their mother tongue and will continue with this tradition. It’s also been a recurring factor that the songs were all about love. It’s a relatable topic for most people and we can assume that they chose love so that audience members can personally relate to the lyrics and feel more connected with the song. However, it does lack in diversity when compared to other countries in the contest who also send in performances with the song topic being love. Another recurring factor from the three performers and majority of the backing performers are that they’re of white ethnicity. Lacking in diversity, it gives the portrayal of Portugal having favoritism towards sending singers from a specific race. However, with these common factors found, a noticeable difference were the genres of music and the types of instruments being played. Going from pop in Suzy’s performance, pop-rock in Andrade’s, and jazz in Sobral’s, it’s nice to see the mix up of styles. The variety of instruments allows artists to have different sounds to represent Portugal. Especially focusing on the 2017 entry by Sobral, the ballad was like the Portuguese Fado music genre with its melancholy and mournful lyrics. The style of the song made it touch audience members and was distinctly unique to the other entries of that year.
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Citations:
Almeida, J. (2007). Citizens of the world: Migration and citizenship of the Portuguese in the UK. Portuguese Studies,23(2), 208-229. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.proxy.seattleu.edu/stable/41057962
Andrade, L. (2015). Há Um Mar Que Nos Separa (Portugal). Eurovision Song Contest 2015 Austria. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE-LqXkb0ok
Escudero, V.M. (2015, May 16). Powerful emotions from Portugal. Eurovision.tv. Retrieved from https://eurovision.tv/story/powerful-emotions-from-portugal
“Time to dance with Suzy from Portugal”. (2014, May 2). Eurovision.tv. Retrieved from https://eurovision.tv/story/time-to-dance-with-suzy-from-portugal
Jordan, P. (2017, April 4). It’s a family affair for Portugal’s Salvador. Eurovision.tv. Retrieved from https://eurovision.tv/story/salvador-sobral-2017-amar-pelos-dois
Price, T. (2013). Rhythms of Culture: Djembe and African Memory in African-American Cultural Traditions. Black Music Research Journal, 33(2), 227-247
Sobral, S. (2017). Amar pelos Dois (Portugal). Eurovision Song Contest 2017 Ukraine [DVD]. Baarn, NL: Universal Music Group
Suzy. (2014). Quero Ser Tua (Portugal). Eurovision Song Contest 2014 Denmark. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhMbHLiEjS4
Voltaj. (2015). De la Capat/All Over Again (Romania) Eurovision Song Contest 2015 Austria. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7iOFkEymXA
Wise, P. (2012, July 3). Portugal PM tells unemployed to look abroad. Financial Times. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/67d4921a-beb6-11e1-b24b-00144feabdc0
Yoon, P. (2001). "She's really become Japanese now!": Taiko drumming and Asian American identifications. American Music,19(4), 417-438. doi:10.2307/3052419
Zwart, J. (2017, July 7). Kyiv calling part six: Salvador’s Eurovision story. Eurovision.tv. Retrieved from https://eurovision.tv/story/kyiv-calling-part-six-salvador-sobral-esc-story
Hi there! Your description of Salvador's performance is beautiful - I was there and that's exactly how it was. Did you know that the initial silence during the performance was something that Salvador and the stage manager specifically asked us for? We were cheering so loudly when he first came on stage during rehearsals that he couldn't hear the introduction to the song.
ReplyDeleteI think it's very likely that Suzy's non-qualification for the final is substantially more to do with the pitchiness of her vocal and the kitsch aspect of the song rather than cultural appropriation concerns. I had to work very hard last year to convince even a small number of European Eurofans that there was something not-good about Francesco's video!
Looking at Portugal in the longer term, the theme of the sea and of people departing across it comes up incredibly often. In fact, Lisbon's hosting of the contest this year is going to have a strong nautical and seafaring theme. The Portuguese relationship to the sea is well worth exploring further.