Wonderment Throughout the Ages: Baroque Spectacles and the Eurovision Song Contest

This thesis analyzes the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), the biggest international song competition, through the lens of the Baroque. By pointing out similarities between the contest and baroque spectacles, when it comes to political uses and aesthetic preferences, I propose that the Eurovision Song Contest can be read as a neo-baroque spectacle. The first part of my thesis discusses the political uses of these events: I first mention some of the ways in which politics were fundamental to baroque spectacles, and then I show how those strategies show up in the ESC. The second part of this thesis deals with the entertainment aspects: divided into three, I explore similarities when it comes to the conceptions of staging, the structure of these spectacles, and the experience of taking part in them.