An academic from Aberdeen has been given a coveted backstage pass to the Eurovision Song Contest after being commissioned to produce a special monogram.
Dr Barbara Barreiro Leon, a lecturer in the School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture at the University of Aberdeen, will create the monogram to explore how identities are represented through contemporary arts.
And an entire chapter of her book will be dedicated to Eurovision with Dr Barreiro Leon given backstage access for the semi-final and grand final of the competition in Liverpool, held by the UK on behalf of Ukraine.
Dr Barreiro Leon, an art historian who specialises in visual culture, is one of a select group with access to the performers and will interview some of the participants
She said: “This is a unique opportunity to explore an event which while seen in many countries as low brow or kitsch, is still the biggest musical event in the world.
“Eurovision was founded in 1956 to bring Europe back together following the Second World War and has since built up an enormous fan base which crosses a huge number of national borders. From that perspective it is the ideal vehicle to look at more than 70 years of change in our societies and culture.”
Dr Barreiro Leon will focus on the visual aspects of the event and says there are few more spectacular sights of colour, costume and flags.
“I think I’ll be the only person among the press pack looking at this from an academic perspective and while it may appear on first glance not to be the sort of event which is usually the subject of rigorous study, there is an incredible amount we can learn from it.
She added: “I want to explore how the performers songs and staging embody the identities of each of the places they are representing.
“The popular culture of today – the things we use as entertainment, fashion or art – may be seen as fads or trends that will fade with time but these things teach us so much about the communication and culture of different generations.
“Eurovision is a place where we can see this across many different years and many different nationalities. In the way that we might visit a museum to look at an 18th Century painting and try to understand the meaning behind it, we can look at the visual identities on display and consider what they say to us about social movements and trends and how these are revealed through the visual expressions of that time.”
