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Nation Branding in Terms of National Identity: 2010-2012

In this blog post, I will analyze aspects of Spain’s national identity that align or misalign with their performances in the Eurovision Song Contest. Then, I will analyze how Spain nationally brands themselves, according to these two aspects. Spain does not use the Eurovision Song Contest as an opportunity to nation brand themselves like other participants do, however it does seem that they care about the contest and always try to put their best effort into their performances. To fully understand this, you must understand what national identity and nation branding are. National identity can be defined as “a sense of a nation as a cohesive whole, as represented by distinctive traditions, culture, and language” (Oxford). In a way, national identity is similar to nation branding, because it is influenced by the nation themselves. However, when a country participates in nation branding, they either build or change their reputation, in order to present specific values or characteristics that represent them. In order to understand why Spain does not nationally brands themselves in the Eurovision song contest, you must first understand what key aspects contribute to the creation of their national identity.
As mentioned in my first blog post, national identity may seem like a very positive and cohesive idea, however, it is often misleading and a challenging concept to comprehend. National identity can bring about tension within a country, which causes conflict and influences people to refute other’s ideas or beliefs, especially if it does not line up with their own. One thing I failed to mention in this blog post is that Spain is made up of multiple autonomous communities (Spain, 2018), therefore it is quite difficult to analyze their national identity. One autonomous community in Spain is Catalonia. Catalonians speak their own language and have their own traditions and culture. When Francisco Franco began his dictatorship in 1923, it represented a “traditional Catholic, Castile-centered Spanish national identity” (Mueller, 2013). Over time, Catalans began to dislike Franco’s dictatorship because it went against everything that they believed. In 2017, they made a proposal of independence from Spain, so that they could finally branch off and distinguish themselves from them. This caused a lot of chaos, conflict, and political issues throughout all of Spain. For this reason, it can be concluded that Spain nationally identifies themselves through politics. Another way that Spain nationally identifies themselves, is through religion. According to the Central Intelligence Agency, 67.8% of Spaniards identify themselves as Roman Catholic. In other words, more than two-thirds of Spain’s 49 million people consider themselves Roman Catholic. The last way that Spain nationally identifies themselves, it through language. The Central Intelligence Agency also states that the nationwide language of Spain is Castilian Spanish, which is spoken by 74% of its population. When it comes to national identity, people are typically categorized by the majority and are grouped based off of similarities. As you can see, this organization of national identity is true for Spain. Now that you understand the key aspects that contribute to the creation of Spain’s identity, it is possible to analyze how they portray this in the Eurovision Song Contest.
As mentioned in my second blog post, in order to understand how Spain is represented in the Eurovision Song Contest, it is important to analyze their performances, as well as their messages behind it. There are three specific aspects in Daniel Diges performance of “Algo Pequeñito (Spain, 2010),” Lucia Perez’s performance of “Que Me Quiten Lo Bailao” (Spain, 2011), and Pastora Soler’s performance of “Quédate Conmigo (Spain, 2012),” that must be acknowledged when considering Spain’s place in the contest. They include performing ballads or songs about love and promoting happiness and fun times through “party songs.” Daniel Diges and Pastora Soler both performed a love song, or also known as a ballad. Diges sang about the tiny things he longed for in a relationship, like saying “I love you.” Where Soler sang an unconventional love song that asked her significant other for forgiveness. Aside from this, Lucia Perez used the strategy of performing a “party song” to represent Spain as a fun and enjoyable place. She did this by using bright colors, an upbeat dance, as well as rhythmic music throughout her performance. Both of these aspects in Spain’s 2010 through 2012 performances are common Eurovision tropes that commercially appeal to the audience and have been proven successful throughout the contest’s history. Rather than basing their performances around politics or current events happening in Europe, which is also a common thing to do--and can be portrayed by others negatively--the 2010, 2011, and 2012 participants represent Spain in a way that is positive. It seems as though they want to present themselves to the Eurovision audience as care-free towards these events. Now that you understand how Spain represents themselves in the Eurovision Song Contest, as well as their national identity, it is possible to see where these two align or misalign. Once you do that, you can finally make conclusions about how Spain nation brands themselves.
 Sometimes countries intertwine aspects of their national identity, into their performances at the contest, hoping to grab their audience’s attention and get to the final round; however, Spain rarely does this. It can be assumed that they do this, partly because they’re apart of the big five, so they automatically get into the final round. However, I believe that they do this because they are made up of too many inner communities with too many cultures and traditions. For example, Catalonia’s language, culture, and traditions are not represented in any of Spain’s performances from 2010 through 2012 and neither are two of Spain’s national identities of politics and religion. As mentioned before, these performances were either related to love or happiness. When a country represents many different religions, cultures, and traditions, it is often hard to generalize them into one specific image. On top of this, when politics are involved, some countries don’t want to show it to the Eurovision audience because it can create even more conflict and cause bigger issues. Even though many countries do promote their political beliefs or issues in their performances, it seems as though Spain would rather not do this. Perhaps Spain only wants the Eurovision audience to see a specific side of them, which is a place that is loving, fun, bright, and all around enjoyable. For these reasons, it can be concluded that Spain rarely participates in nation branding, like other countries do.         
If anything, the slightest amount of nation branding that Spain participates in was through Lucia Perez’s (Spain, 2011) performance. I mentioned earlier that Lucia Perez conformed to the common technique of performing a “party song.” Party songs are usually fun and upbeat. They include bright colors, along with a lot of dancing. I also mentioned in my second blog post that Catherine Baker, a lecturer in 20th Century History at the University of Hull stated that “Eurovision entries from Spain…often draw on the representational strategies of commercially successful Latin pop music, such as “bright colors, rhythmic music, and brown or olive skin” (Baker, 2008). In a way, this helps to brand the country in a positive and appealing manner. Lucia Perez specifically included palm trees in the background of her performance and used fireworks as props. This could brand Spain as a place that is tropical, playful, and free. However, this strategy has proven to be very commercially successful, therefore it can be inferred that the countries who use it, only want to grab the audience’s attention so that they can gain more votes and even bring in tourism. In Spain’s case, I believe that they partly perform party songs because it brings in votes and tourism, but mostly because of the fact, again, that their country is made up of so many different autonomous communities. Therefore, an easy way to generalize all of these different ideas and beliefs is through the strategy of performing these party songs.

As much or as little as Spain nation brands themselves, they do not show that they are making a mockery out of the song contest, or that they do not care about it. None of the performances analyzed above, performed anything with cultural appropriation, which is a common way that countries will show that they are making a mockery out of the contest. Also, across all three years, the performers sang in their nationwide language of Castilian Spanish. For this reason, they show that they care about the contest and are putting in the effort to sing in their native tongue, even though most countries sing in English now. Overall, even though Spain does not use the Eurovision Song Contest as a way to nation brand themselves like most participants do, they still show that they care about the contest and have pride for their country by putting a lot of effort into their performances.
(Word Count: 1491)

Works Cited
Baker, C. (2008). Wild dances and dying wolves: Simulation, essentialization, and national identity at the Eurovision Song Contest. Popular Communication, 6, 173–189. http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.seattleu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=70362b62-c033-41d7-a78f-d261bd03cc64%40sessionmgr4008
“Daniel Diges.” (2010.) Eurovision.tv. Retrieved from https://eurovision.tv/participant/daniel-diges/info

Diges, D. (2010). a Algo Pequenito (Spain). Eurovision Song Contest 2010 Oslo. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gltZu8lsFc

“Lucia Perez.” (2011). Eurovision.tv. Retrieved from https://eurovision.tv/participant/lucia-perez/info

Mueller, A. S. (2013). Conflicting Indentities in Spain’s Peripheries: Centralist Spanish Nationalism in Contemporary Cultural Production of Catalonia and the Basque Country. Iowa Research Online, The University of Iowa’s Institutional Repository. Retrieved from http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2588.

“Pastora Soler.” (2012). Eurovision.tv. Retrieved from https://eurovision.tv/participant/pastora-soler/info

Perez, L. (2011). Que Me Quiten Lo Bailao (Spain). Eurovision Song Contest 2011 Dusseldorf. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSOEmM0h-aE

Soler, P. (2012). Quédate Conmigo (Spain). Eurovision Song Contest 2012 Baku. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8J1b62wOao

Spain. (2018, January, 24). The CIA World Factbook. Retrieved from         
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sp.html

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