Blog Post 3- Critiquing the National Brand
Critiquing the National Brand
In this blog post, I will be exploring the ways Austria’s national identity is presented through the National Brand they present in the Eurovision Song Contest. My first blog post was focused on exploring Austria’s national identity as well, but without the national brand component. A portion of this post will be dedicated to correcting the mistakes that I made in that first blog post, and redefining Austria’s national identity. Once their national identity has been established, I will explore how some of their past performances relate, or do not relate, to their identity.
The first thing I’d like to address, was a major shortcoming in my first blog post, regarding Austria’s national identity. Austria does have its national identity tied to its former oppressor, but that oppressor was a fascist Nazi Germany rather than any socialist group like I’d previously mentioned. Their current identity is still evolving, and has been since the early 20th century. There was however a time of pause during the first and second World Wars, including the socialist period after the Second World War. It wasn’t until 1989 when the Berlin Wall (and with it the iron curtain) fell that Austria’s current National Identity emerged.
As a powerful western union, the countries of the European Union have been facing a humanitarian crisis regarding immigration. Individual countries must decide for themselves their stance on immigration. Will they allow immigrants? If so, how many? What will their rights and citizenship look like? These are all questions that the leaders of these countries must discuss and answer. Austria is no different and has been struggling with these questions for years.
Given their roots in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and their undeniable connection to Germany, both of these entities play a huge part in the identity of the current country. During Austria’s First Republic period (from 1918 to 1938 when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany), the majority of Austrians believed the only proper place for them was as part of the German nation (Wischenbart 1994), and although not as prominent as a belief as it once was, traces of these ideas can still be found in Austria’s identity. For example, just like Germany, since the mid-1960s, Austria has been encouraging guest workers -mostly Slavic or Turkish- to come find a home in Austria (Wischenbart 1994). More recent data suggests that when it comes to refugees and the EU, Austria is willing to pull their weight. Starting in 2014, Austria began accepting immigrants to relocate into the country. The amount they have accepted proportionate to their GDP and current size is relatively high, most years accepting more refugees than the majority of other countries in the EU. From 2014 to 2016, Austria has accepted more refugees than Spain, and a similar number to France (Eurostat, 2019). Austria’s size is respectively 5 times and 8 times smaller than those countries. (Central Intelligence Agency, 2019). Until 2016, Austria was accepting almost 50% more immigrants than its biggest neighbor, Germany. Through this data, it can be assumed that Austria as a nation is quite open to immigration, and this is a core ideal in their national identity.
Although Austria lacks nation branding campaigns or a strong or obvious national identity, they do have core pillars which acts as a national identity. These core pillars are also what they brand themselves as, especially when it comes to tourism (Austrian National Tourist Office, n.d.). There are three of these core pillars, the first of which is the beautiful nature in the country (Austrian National Tourist Office, n.d.). From vast, majestic mountain ranges to serene alpine lakes, Austria’s national beauty is undeniable The second, its roots in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Long ago, Vienna was the center of a vast and multi-ethnic empire, and today its architecture, arts, and culture are all highly reflective of that empire. This is especially evident in their immigration policies, as they strive to be an ethnic and multinational country. Third, is the Austrian ability to live well. The German word “Gemütlichkeit” loosely translates to coziness, and the Austrian people are often known for their happy lifestyles. (Austrian National Tourist Office, n.d.).
In order to extrapolate a likely national identity, we can look at how Austria presents itself in conjunction with evidence of their national and political behavior. The country presents itself as a beautiful place priding itself on its culture, history, and music. Evidence of this can be found by simply visiting Austria’s tourism website, where they say:
“Austria used to be the center of a grand, multi-ethnic empire with tremdenously [sic] varied cultural influences. Over the centuries, this created a furtile [sic] ground for innovation within Austria's art and culture. Today our imperial history and its many sights are still a major reason to visit” (Austrian National Tourist Office, n.d.).
This gives a good example as to how they would like to present themselves, and be seen by the rest of the world, especially when it comes to tourism, which is a big deal to the Austrian economy. Over 70% of their GDP is made up of “Services”, and while obviously not all of this is due to tourism, it is listed as a major product of Austria (CIA, 2019). When looking closely at another important aspect of a national identity, how the nation behaves, it can be clearly seen Austria is a country open to immigration and welcoming to refugees. Both of these aspects combine to create a clear national identity for the country, which I will use to analyze Austria’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Austria has been participating in the Eurovision Song Contest since 1956 (Austria, 2019). Although not one of the Eurovision “Big Five”, they have undoubtedly been a staple of the show. By looking at some of their performances, I will determine if Austria on stage is true to their prominent national identity. Furthermore, I will use this data and attempt to extrapolate the Austrian view on Eurovision, as well as nation branding as a whole.
In the year 2016, Austria was represented by an already established artist, ZOË. She chose to sing the song “Loin d’ici”, written by herself and her father, Christof Straub (ZOË, 2016). The song features powerful and soothing vocals, highlighted by blissful, flowery visuals. In 2017, the Austrian nation was represented by Nathan Trent. While less popular then his previous Austrian representative, he was still a known artist (Trent, 2017). His song titled “Running on Air”, contains elements similar to those found in ZOË’s “Loin d’ici”, such as a happy tone, and bright, happy vocals. The lyrics in his song are particularly reflective of this positive tone, with lines such as “If you push me down, I’ll get up again” (Trent, 2016). When asked what his song was about, Trent gave this response: “It’s about, hope, believing in yourself and reaching your goals, by embracing the good and the bad moments in your life” (Trent, 2016). Point of note: Nathan Trent was selected internally by Austria’s national broadcaster ORF (Rasmus, 2017), while ZOË was selected entirely by televoters in Austria’s song competition titled “Wer Singt für Österriech?” (Petersen, 2016). The reason this is an important note is that an internal selection is much more likely to reflect how a nation would like to be seen, whereas an external selection is more likely to be representative of a nation's true identity.
Both of their songs share a common feeling of happiness, which can be found in the lyrics of Trent’s song, and more in the visuals of ZOË’s performance. Both of these performances are highly reflective of at least one aspect of the Austrian identity, which is the notion of Gemütlichkeit. On top of that, both of these songs have aspects that could be tied to immigration or refugees. In ZOË’s performance, one of the visuals is the yellow brick road from The Wizard of Oz, which could be interpreted as the path to safety, or a new home for immigrants. In Trent’s song, one could interpret his positive lyrics about bouncing back when things don’t go your way as a positive message regarding refugees, encouraging them to press on to find a better life. Through these two songs, I can say that with a couple of assumptions, Austria’s performances in 2016 and 2017 are representative of their national identity.
The Austrian nation seems to value the importance of the Eurovision Song Contest, while also being able to have fun with it and not take it too seriously. Evidence of this can be found first through how some participants are elected to represent the country. In ZOË’s case, she was elected by the people. If Austria’s citizens didn't care for the show, they wouldn’t take part in televoting and watching their selection process, making it clear that Austrians do take an interest in Eurovision. Many Austrian performances fall under the category of Gemütlichkeit, being happy and fun. Some years however, there is room for the performance to hold a little more political value. An example of this was in 2014 when Conchita Wurst sang “Rise like a Phoenix”, another song about resilience. Wurst is actually the drag queen persona of a gay man named Thomas Neuwirth, who ended up going on to win Eurovision 2014, showing Austria’s inclusive ideals to the rest of Europe. Due to that win, Austria was given the opportunity to host in 2015, and during that show, the postcards between sets showed of some of Austria’s rich history and spectacular natural wonders. These postcards show that Austria is unafraid of branding itself with images of what it has to offer.
The Eurovision Song contest provides a place for European countries to express themselves and what their nation stands for. Austria has utilized the show to convey its national identity and brand itself to the rest of Europe.
Word Count: 1645
References
Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest. (2019). Eurovision.tv. Retrieved from
Central Intelligence Agency. (2019). Austria. The World Factbook. Retrieved from
Eurostat. (2019). Resettled Persons: Annual Data [Data file]. Retrieved from
Eurovision Song Contest: Vienna 2015: Building Bridges (2015). [DVD] Vienna, AT: Universal Music Group.
Nathan Trent. (2017). Eurovision.tv. Retrieved from
https://eurovision.tv/participant/nathan-trent
Austrian National Tourist Office (n.d.). Our Brand. Retrieved March 18, 2019, from
Petersen. (2016, February 12). Austria: ZOË singt für Österreich in Stockholm.
Retrieved from
https://eurovisionworld.com/esc/austria-zoe-singt-fyr-osterreich-in-stockholm
Rasmus. (2017, August 12). Austria: Nathan Trent to Eurovision 2017. Retrieved from
https://eurovisionworld.com/esc/austria-nathan-trent-to-eurovision-2017
Wischenbart, R. (1994). National identity and immigration in Austria ‐historical
framework and political dispute. West European Politics. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01402389408425015
ZOË - Eurovision Song Contest Stockholm 2016. (2016). Retrieved from
ZOË. (2016). Loin d’ici (Austria). Eurovision Song Contest 2016 Stockholm [DVD]
Vienna, Austria: Universal Music Corp.
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