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Not Such Bona Drag

Ukrainians Take to the Streets against Gender-Bending Eurovision Entry

Ukrainian nationalists are furious about their country's entry for this year's Eurovision song contest, a drag queen who some feel denigrates their national character. Protestors have taken to the streets to demand the motherland withdraw from the contest.

Everyone knows that the trashy international music competition known as the Eurovision Song Contest is in fact a continuation of politics by other means. In the somewhat forced group hug that is the European, countries have to pretend that they're all just one big happy family -- and so international tensions and affiliations get sublimated into Eurovision voting. Guilt-ridden Germany is kind to the Israeli entry, Estonians and Latvians award each other high scores, and historical enemies like Greece and Turkey trade the dreaded nul points.

Now Ukrainian nationalists are worried that their international image may be harmed by this year's entry, a drag queen called Verka Serduchka who is a cult star in the country. Serduchka's song "Dancing" was chosen by an overwhelmingly majority to be the Ukrainian entry in a public vote.

Angry Ukrainian nationalists held demonstrations across the country Sunday, demanding that Ukraine pull out of Eurovision this year. Their beef with Serduchka, whose real name is Andei Danilko, is that she represents a stereotype of a stupid Ukrainian villager and her performance will damage Ukraine's reputation abroad.

A politically charged Eurovision

Ironically, Russians are reported to also be angry with the entry, which they perceive as being too nationalistic -- perhaps proving that the best art does in fact resist definitive interpretation. According to the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Russians are furious about the song's chorus, which appears to exhort Ukrainians to sing "Russia goodbye." The song also includes references to a Kiev square that was the focus of anti-Russian protests during the 2004 Orange Revolution, which signaled a shift in Ukraine's international affiliations away from its once close ally Russia and towards the West.

Politics is likely to play a particularly prominent role in this year's contest, the finals of which will take place in Helsinki on May 12. The European Broadcasting Union, the organization behind Eurovision, takes a very inclusive view of the vague geographical entity that is Europe, and has members flung as far as North Africa and the Middle East. Being such a broad church can create conditions for some interesting politics.

Israel's entry is a gallows-humor-heavy ditty called "Push The Button" which addresses the country's anxiety about impending nuclear destruction at the finger of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Organizers allowed the entry despite complaints about its political lyrics, which are usually frowned upon at harmony-loving Eurovision.

Meanwhile Palestinians announced last week that they were launching efforts to be included in Eurovision and hope to qualify in 2008. The first step is to get the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation accepted as a member of the European Broadcasting Union. "Our participation in Eurovision 2008 is a sign that they will view us as a state even though we're not a state," Bassem Abu Sumaya, head of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, told a news conference. Whether the Palestinian Eurovision jury will -- unlike their government -- recognize Israel should they be accepted remains an open question, however.

dgs/ap/reuters