Tuesday 4th June, 2pm to 3pm
Free admission, voluntary donation at the door
Booking required –
e mail
Venue:
Friends Meeting House, Friargate, York
In 2023, the Eurovision Song Contest came to the UK for the first
time in 25 years, when the BBC hosted it in Liverpool on Ukraine's
behalf. Eurovision hosts typically tell a story about their own
country and its relationship to Europe, reaching more viewers than
any other TV music event. However, the background of Russia's
invasion demanded a different approach. The BBC worked with
Ukraine's public broadcaster to make sure the TV shows still
reflected Ukrainian culture in authentic, up-to-date ways, in a
partnership summed up by the event's slogan ‘United By Music’.
Liverpool meanwhile delivered a larger scale cultural programme
than any past Eurovision host city had ever attempted, including
an entire cultural festival plus community programming with
thousands of participants - all while expressing itself as a
European city, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors and
honouring Ukraine.
Join Catherine Baker of Hull University as she discusses the power
of partnership created during this memorable event, both on screen
and on the ground. Dr Catherine Baker of Hull University is a
specialist in post-Cold War history. She has researched the
cultural politics of the Eurovision Song Contest for more than
fifteen years, including what it reveals about changing
relationships between LGBTQ+ and national identities since the
1990s. In 2023, she led research on the cultural relations impact
of Eurovision for the British Council; the final report will be
published by the time of the Festival of Ideas. Her next book
project will investigate the "performance" of national identity
through Eurovision since the end of the Cold War.
