ESCAPE (Eurovision Song Contest as an Arena for Pluralism and Europeanness) is an international research project funded by the 4EU+ European University Alliance.

Our project brings together a multidisciplinary team of scholars from five leading European institutions:

Studying the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) means looking closely at how identities, collective rituals, and public participation intersect—both on the ground and across social media. The contest offers a unique window into the complex political and social dynamics of pan-European cultural industries, media landscapes, and public service broadcasters.

Core Research Question

To answer this question, ESCAPE provides targeted case studies using historical, sociological, musicological, and media analyses. Our work investigates the actors, cultural forms, and everyday practices that define the ESC, organized around three core thematic pillars.

While the ESC is often marketed as a celebration of harmony (exemplified by its slogan United by Music), it also mirrors real-world social contradictions and cultural friction. This pillar examines how traditional, fan, and social media coverage reflects these contemporary societal issues.

Digital platforms and fan communities have democratized the event, reshaping what « Europeanness » looks like and making it highly accessible to younger audiences. By mapping international fan news outlets, conducting content analyses, and interviewing media creators, we aim to understand how a participatory European identity is framed, shared, and sometimes contested online.

This pillar analyzes how institutional and media actors cooperate—and sometimes clash—to produce the ESC. We investigate the decision-making processes, building of consensus, and underlying tensions among various stakeholders who hold different economic, political, and ideological interests.

Specifically, we explore how « European values » are interpreted and how they influence the strategic choices made by broadcasters and organizers, with a particular focus on our five participating university nations: Germany, Denmark, France, the Czech Republic, and Poland.

The ESC is a space where different visions of Europe intersect and collide—a dynamic clearly audible in the music itself, where global pop trends meet local traditions. This pillar examines how « multiple Europes » emerge through geopolitical relationships, shifting power dynamics, and persistent cultural stereotypes.

A key goal of this axis is to decenter Eurovision studies. Research in this field has historically been dominated by a Western, Anglophone canon. ESCAPE actively highlights the perspectives of actors and regions that have been structurally marginalized within both the contest and academic literature. We critically evaluate how certain Western traditions present themselves as universal, while Eastern and Southern contributions are often dismissed as exoticism or mimicry. 

Ultimately, we explore how diverse cultural, musical, and fan communities build connections that transcend national borders and reshape the European imagination.