The Linguistic Staging of
Euro-Sexualities in the
Eurovision Song Contest
Presentation at the Workshop
"Language and Sexuality: (through and) beyond gender"
(Mytilene/Lesvos, GREECE; June 7th, 2008)
Dr. Heiko Motschenbacher
(Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, GERMANY)
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
INTRODUCTION: Sexual and Gender Identities in the
Eurovision Song Contest 2008
Gendered Song titles:
CYP 2008: "Femme fatale" by Evdokia Kadi
AND 2008: "Casanova" by Gisela
UKR 2008: "Shady lady" by Ani Lorak
FIN 2008: "Missä miehet ratsastaa"
("Where men ride forth") by Teräsbetoni
SWE 2008: "Hero" by Charlotte Perrelli
POR 2008: "Senhora do mar"
("Lady of the sea") by Vânia Fernandes
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
 Post-Doc Research Project:
"The Discursive Construction of National, European and Sexual
Identities in the ESC"
1.) Production side: ESC lyrics
1a) quantitative analyses
1b) qualitative analyses
2.) Reception side: ESC fan communities
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
The Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities
Eurovision Song Contest
1 Theoretical Framework
2 Mechanisms of Linguistic Identity Construction in the ESC
2.1. Language and Identity
2.2. Camp
2.3. Performativity
2.4. Linguistic Manifestations of National Camp Potential
2.5. Linguistic Manifestations of European Camp Potential
2.6. Linguistic Manifestations of Sexual Camp Potential
2.7. Interrelation between National, European and Sexual Identities
2.8. Competing Discourses
3 Conclusion
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
1 Theoretical Framework
Eurolinguistics (cf. Haarmann 1999)
Critical Discourse Analysis (cf. Fairclough 2003)
Feminist Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis (cf. Baxter 2003)
Language & Sexuality (cf. Cameron & Kulick 2003)
Queer Theory (cf. Sullivan 2003)
* "Queer" as a concept without an essence, rather a
positionality opposed to normative practices of all kinds
(problematising agenda)
* Exposing identities as effects of (linguistic) discursive
construction
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
Why these theoretical approaches?
* Plurality of theoretical approaches as a poststructuralist
premise
* Politically motivated research: "linguistics with an attitude"
* Centrality of identity
* Main challenges:
a) Integration of Eurolinguistics as a structuralist approach
b) Integration of Queer Theory as the "least linguistic" approach
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
2.1 Language and Identity (cf. Joseph 2004)
Traditional variationist approaches see identity as pre-existent
and reflected in language use.
More recent approaches see identity as discursively
constructed in language use: Interactional sociolinguistics,
poststructuralist linguistics.
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
2.2 Camp (cf. Sontag 1964; Cleto 1999)
* Camp as an alternative mode of aestheticism: focus not on
beauty/good art but on artificiality ("it's good because it's so
artificial")
* Stylisation practices that are so exaggerated that they expose the
constructive mechanism behind identities: Being as playing a role
* Linguistic study of camp talk as indexing male homosexual
identity (cf. Harvey 2002)
 Other identity facets apart from sexual identity have been
neglected so far!
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
2.3 Performativity (cf. Butler 1993)
* Linguistic features index identities due to their performative
history: indexicality
* Guiding question: How can certain social identities be
constructed through language?
* Linguistic features as traces of camp potential
* ESC: exaggerated constructions of national, European,
sexual identities within a three-minute time frame  parodistic
construction
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
Constructing National, Pan-European and Sexual Identities in
ESC Performances: Sample Year 2007
Marija Šerifović performing "Molitva"
("Prayer") for Serbia in 2007
* Data: Corpus of ESC lyrics, compiled with the help of the website
"Diggiloo Thrush": www.diggiloo.net/
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
2.4 Linguistic Manifestations of National Camp Potential
* Language choice: national languages
Example:
- GER 2007 (Roger Cicero – Frauen regier'n die Welt)
* Lexical nation-building: reference to national geographic
entities, famous national people etc.
Example:
- FRA 2007 (Les Fatals Picards – L‘amour à la française)
 References to "Paris", "Tour Eiffel", "Seine", "Champs
Élysées", "Moulin Rouge"
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
2.5 Linguistic Manifestations of European Camp Potential
* Language choice: non-national European languages
Sample Year 2007 (out of 42 performances):
31 used English, 4 French, 3 Spanish, 2 Italian, 2 Russian, 1 German
* Lexical Euro-construction: non-national entities from the
European cultural realm
Example:
- UK 2007 (Scooch – Flying the flag (for you)):
"London to Berlin
All the way from Paris to Tallinn
Helsinki on to Prague
Don't matter where we are"
* Transnational lexical items: anglicisms, internationalisms
Example:
- GER 2007 (Roger Cicero – Frauen regier'n die Welt):
 Use of anglicisms "Boss", "Actionheld"
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
2.6 Linguistic Manifestations of Sexual Camp Potential
a) Linguistic construction of sexual desire: desiring subject,
desired object and their relationship
* Gender-specificity vs. gender ambiguity
* Dependency on language structure: languages with or without
grammatical gender
* lexical genderisation: forms that carry semantic feature [female]
or [male], especially personal nouns (woman/man) or third person
singular pronouns (he/she)
Example:
- BUL 2007 (Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov – Water)
"More, ludo mlado, konče jazdi
Lo, a reckless lad, riding his pony
Mitre le, ij... Mitre le
Oh Mitra, eeh... oh Mitra
More, konče jazdi, moma ljubi
Lo, riding his pony, loving his lass
Mitre le, ij... Mitre le"
Oh Mitra, eeh... oh Mitra
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
2.6 Linguistic Manifestations of Sexual Camp Potential (cont.)
* Contextual gender disambiguation of lexically gender-neutral
forms:
 First person forms are referentially gendered
 Second person forms may be referentially gendered if the
addressee is part of the stage performance
 All neutral personal reference forms may be disambiguated
through the co-text
Example 1: Heterosexual gender disambiguation:
- HUN 2007 (Magdi Rúzsa – Unsubstantial Blues):
"You're such a casual man, oh, wavin' an empty hand [you-M]
I'm helpless and I'm lonely without you"
[I-f]
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
2.6 Linguistic Manifestations of Sexual Camp Potential (cont.)
Example 2: Ambiguous gender construction of desired object:
- BLR 2007 (Koldun – Work Your Magic):
"Work your magic
You set my beating heart in motion
When you cast your loving potion over me"
[you]
[you & I-m]
[you & I-m]
b) Linguistic construction of sexual identities
* Subversive constructions of gender mismatch index nonheteronormativity
Examples:
- DAN 2007 (DQ – Drama Queen):
"I'm your drama queen tonight." [I-m-F]
- UKR 2007 (Verka Serduchka – Dancing Lasha Tumbai):
"My name is Verka Serduchka." [I-m-F]
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
2.7 Interrelation between National, European and Sexual Identities
ESC 2007
42
performances
National
Camp
22
European
Camp
37
Sexual
Camp
32
 Tendencies:
* Decrease of national camp (e.g. abolishment of "national
language rule" in 1999)
* Increase of European and sexual camp
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
2.7 Interrelation between National, European and Sexual Identities
ESC 2007
Exclusively
national (N)
Exclusively
European (E)
National &
European (NE)
out of 42
performances
0
5
5
English-only lyrics; no sexual
content
Code-mixing: English + national
language; no sexual content
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
2.7 Interrelation between National, European and Sexual Identities
ESC 2007
National &
Sexual (NS)
out of 42
performances
5
National language;
sexual content
 BOS, BUL, MNT, SER, SLO
European &
Sexual (ES)
15
Mainly: English lyrics;
sexual content
National &
European &
Sexual (NES)
12
Mainly: Code-mixing: English +
national language;
sexual content
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
2.7 Interrelation between National, European and Sexual identities
Linguistic construction of sexual identities in ESC 2007
Performances
Heteronormative
Open
Subversive
NS (5)
3
(BUL, MNT, SLO)
2
(BOS, SER)
---
NES (12)
7
(CRO, CZE, FRA,
GER, GRE, ROM,
TUR)
4
(ARM, ESP, POR, UK)
1
(UKR)
ES (15)
4
(HUN, LAT, POL,
RUS)
10
(BEL, BLR, CYP, EST,
FIN, ISL, LIT, MAL,
NED, NOR)
1
(DAN)
14
16
2
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
2.7 Interrelation between National, European and Sexual Identities
Correlation with languages:
HETERONORMATIVE
(14 performances)
Languages:
Engl: 8 [57.1%]
Fr: 2, Gre: 1, Ger: 1, Rus: 1, Rom: 1, Bul: 1,
Cro: 1, Cze: 1, Mnt: 1, Slo: 1
[Non-Engl: 78.6%]
OPEN + SUBVERSIVE Languages:
(18 performances)
Engl: 15 [83.3%]
Span: 4, Fr: 2, Bos: 1, Ser: 1, Ital: 1, Arm: 1,
Por: 1, Ukr: 1, Ger: 1
[Non-Engl: 72.2%]
Linguistic Staging of Euro-Sexualities in the Eurovision Song Contest
3 Conclusion
* Interrelation between national, European and sexual identities
* Poststructuralist formation of a new pan-European identity:
a) directly: via European camp
b) indirectly: via weakening of national identities
c) indirectly: via higher openness of sexual identities
* Central role of English in that process:
a) as a pan-European lingua franca (especially non-natively)
b) as a language that allows for gender ambiguity
Contact Details:
Dr. Heiko Motschenbacher
Email:
[email protected]
Institute for English and American Studies (IEAS), Linguistics Department
Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University
Grüneburgplatz 1, 60629 Frankfurt am Main, GERMANY
Room 3.217
Tel.: (+49) 69 798 32532
Fax: (+49) 69 798 32531
www.quinguistics.de
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