So why do some people become Eurovision fans? Part 2 of the mystery

Read the first part of this article here!

I'm going to open this part with two personal Eurovision-experiences of mine, that would serve as an example for my final Eurovision fandom-theory.

The year was 2006. It was the first time I went to Eurovision, In Athens, Greece. And I was standing in the middle of the press room, with a microphone in my hand, interviewing Andreas Lundstedt from Alcazar. In front of us were many photographers and journalists with video cameras, and they were filming and taking pictures of...us! Of me talking with Andreas. I felt like I'm in the seventh heaven. That I finally did that, I've achieved what everybody wants and craves for: to meet famouse people and be in the spotlight, in the place where everything happens.

Except that it was only an illusion. I was not really a journalist. I only got a press-accreditation because I took part in a temporary project of doing a video-blog for Eurovision. When I came back to Israel after the Eurovision ended, no glorious job waited for me, only usual exams at the university, and overload of tasks that accumulated because I went abroad in the middle of the most study-loaded perioud of the school year. And still, when I stood there in the venue in Athens, I felt like it was real. As if little me was really an important person who deserves these cameras and shootings. It was like I got the chance to jump into the future, or to another galaxy, and see what it feels like, to be someone who DOES usually interfer with such glamorous things.

The second Eurovision episode I want to tell about also took part in Athens. There was a cruise for journalists and Eurovision artists and I had the chance to join. The atmosphere on the ship was heavenly. There was food, music, cold breeze and fans from all over the world. And one moment just was engraved in my memory. I remember passing by a group of fans singing Linda Bengtzing's 'Alla flickor" from melodifestivalen. I remember I naturally joined them in singing, without even thinking. A wonderful feeling of being a part of a bigger thing suddenly swept over me. Singing with them felt like we were all a big Eurovision family. It was amazing, to see how you can suddenly form a strong emotional connection with people you've never met and never heard of before. How strangers can suddenly become your friends and soul-mates only because you all love the same thing and  are familiar with the same rare musical style.

But this, too, was an illusion. They were not really my friends, and they were surely not soul-mates or "spirtualy family". Friends are people you meet on a regular basis and know to depth. Friendship is something you build and nurture, and it has also ups and downs, after you get to know your friends' bad habits and detested quialities. It's not so hard, to immidiately like people from other culture, that you "earned" automaticly because of Eurovision, and who always seem nice, simply because you don't know how anger and unfriendliness is expressed according to them. It's also not so hard to like those friends, that you meet only once in a year and therefore never fight with them and never get to know their unpleasant every-day sides.

Eurovision is the event of illusion. It gives you things for free, and you don't need to make any effort. Just be a fan and be a part. And it starts way before the happy day in which you go on your first Eurovision trip. It starts when you watch the contest for the first time, when you are a kid. The show itself is a bundle of illusions, but we'll get there later.

As I noticed this strong theme of illusion in Eurovision, I tried to think: what kind of people would regard this illusion so attractive? What people would like the idea of instant fame, instant friends, instant national pride, instant attention that's directed to you, and so on? And then I remembered all those American films, showing this unpopular boy who's laughed at  at school and is never invited to parties. And as his class-mates inflict him with the final torture, he's shouting at them: "You'll see! I'll show all of you! One day I'll be famous and you'll all be sorry!!!"

What am I trying to say by this? That we, Eurovisin fans, are all not-so-popular kids who want a revange? Not necessarily. But a person who wants it big and instant, just HAS to be a person who lacked something as a kid. Only someone who's never had something, would want to have it so desperately when he's an adult, or even earlier in life. Now he wants it bigger than ever, and he wants it now.

And how does he get all this by being a Eurovision fan? Let's form an example.

I'll call him Peter, as a tribute to Finland's entry. Peter is nine. Or eight or seven or so. He may be a very introverted kid who's never been noticed at school and has no friends, even though he's quite smart. He can, alternatively, also be a kid who's over-praised at home for his talents and looks, but then naturally doesn't get the same amount of attention at school and it frustrates him. Or he can also be gay, who's learned from his surroundings that one should be straight and love football and not barbie dolls, and therefore he's afraid to show his "gayness" so he's becoming very quiet and shy. There can be many kinds of Peters, but they all have one thing in common: Peter has never had the chance to express himself and be someone. Peter does not have a self-image. A self image is one of the most basic needs of a human being.

One evening in May Peter is watching a program called the Eurovision Song Contest in his family's living room. He's becoming completely enchanted and can't take his eyes off the screen. Years later he would tell his fellow Eurovision fans about this first time, and about all the "beautiful songs, music, dances, festivity, so many languages..." and so on that captured him and made him a fan. Yeah, Peter thinks that this was what made him love Eurovision. He just love music, and also likes languages and other cultures. but is it really so?

Together with Peter there are millions of people who are music lovers and are watching the contest, but find nothing special in it, except for the usual "support your country" thing. But Peter did find something special in it. He found himself. He saw a contest where every song is just shouting out loud: "This is me!!! watch me!!!! now!!!". He saw songs which are so catchy and easily-remembered, that just capture your ear from the very first second of their opening. He saw shiny sequinsed outfits, colourful dresses and strange folk-custums. He heard strange languages that he's never heard before. He saw women who are not the usual feminine pop-star material but are strong dominant divas who sing power-ballads, or alternatively perform an up-beat songs with such grace and charisma in their moves that it looks like they, and not men, rule the world. He also saw men sing and perform, but they were not the usual men in suits. They were men who wore colours and danced gracefully with their flexible bodies even better than woman. They looked like great peacocks, showing off their questionable sexuality.

And he saw even more. He saw acceptance. He saw that those singers represent their countries. They were chosen, from all the rest. They are a source of pride. Even though they may be strange, over extraverted, and have so-called opposite sexual behaviour, they were chosen to be the representing face and body of their country. Already now Peter is forming in his mind the dream he would be able to express in words only years later: He wants to represent his country in Eurovision. This is the most desired stamp one can have on himself in order to prove that he is accepted as he is.

And finally, when the show was about to end, Peter saw a final desire coming into satisfaction: The contest had a winner. Someone, probably the one who was the best, was crowned and awarded a prise and a big honour. It was a reasuring thing, to see that it's so simple: the one who's the best gets what he deserves, and the ones who are less successful are ranked below in downward order.

So that was what Peter saw: Self-expression. Acceptance. Justice. Three things he needed so badly in his daily life, where he was constantly backstage, casted away, lonely, hidden or uninvited. Many people watched the contest together with Peter all around the world, but they saw only strange old-fashioned songs, unlike the ones they like to hear on the radio, a long tiring voting process, and a cocky winner with too much show-off who won over better "normal" songs.

And it's not the end of the story. Peter is about to grow up and discover, to his great surprise and happiness, that there were other people like him, who happened to find something in this far-flung contest who anyone think is strange and unnacessary. And then a very interesting interaction is about to take place. As I said, there are many kinds and forms of Peters, all of them needing attention and self-expression due to different reasons. Remember the "gays & divas" theory? two personality types of different fans? So here I'm gonna base myself upon that elementary scheme and claim that there are two ways of dealing with this need for attention described above.

Those Peters, or Eurovision fans, grow up at some time. Most of them are already not the frustrated kid they were. They've learned to express themselves and blend in their surrounding society to some degree. Maybe it was Eurovision that helped them and gave them the inspiration for self-building, through singing the songs, following a yearly event, having dreams and desires, and so on. I think there are two types of ways of overcoming this childhood lack of attention. One is over-extraversion. I chose this term insted of  the former "diva" term, which is not appropriate anymore, because not all compensation-behaviours have a feminine queen element. So some fans are becoming some sort of a Eurovision artist-personality, only without the singing thing (or sometimes with it too). They dress differently in an attention-seeking way, they talk a lot about themselves, they demand compliments, either by saying "I'm so damn pretty" or alternatively "damn, I'm so ugly". Some of them are also fighting a lot and becoming rude or over-criticizing. Some develope an annoying sense of humor, and so on. As I said, There are many ways of standing out. Some of them are attractive and acceptable, and some of them are clearly not. Some are productive, some are not. But all are attention-achieving in some way.

The other way of coming over the lack of attention and self-expression is what I call extreme-fandom. You know those very commited fans who know all the songs from all the years and everything? Or are fanatic admirers of some Eurovision artist and follow him obsessively? They are usually quiet persons, very nice and polite, who don't dance like crazy at the Eurovision parties or post millions of pictures on facebook. I think they just chose to use their love for Eurovision as meaning of expressing their wish of getting attention or standing-out. Instead of being a star, they are satisfied with watching other stars perform and admiring others who express this huge need to shout "look at me, here I am". As they grow up and develope, they choose to work at the back of the show buisness, as producers, journalists, helpers...anything that surrounds the star istelf. I still don't understand why some people become colourful characters and some chose to stay as they are and just project their needs and wishes on some other figures. But I'm open to suggestions.

There's also a third way of expressing oneself, and it's a somewhat combination of the two ways described above. I've met several fans who are very extraverted and at the same time praise obsessively other Eurovision figures. There are not so many who are like that, because the extraverted are usually too self-centered, and the admirers are usually extremely ignoring all elements of themselves and direct all their energy towards others. But They still exist. Those people are somewhat more problematic in relationships with other people, because they do not take a specific role, and therefore find it hard to find friends who match them. But from what I saw, being both a fan and a diva is just a stage, and they usually transform into something else, healthier.

When those two kinds of Eurovision fans interact, they just complete each other. It's a system that feeds itself, as I said earlier. Some fans are becoming attention-attracting divas, while the others adore them, seek their companion and attention and get inspiration and indirect satisfaction for their needs. But conflicts can still arise. They arise where there are several extraverted people who all want the attention and liking of everyone at the same time, but know that there can only be one winner, one diva (Eurovision, remember?). That's usually a situation that happens in the local fan communities of Eurovision, where fans are meeting each other often, and everybody knows everybody. Many Eurovision fans lose interest in the Eurovision scene just because of this  - they are becoming tired of this attention-seeking and drama-distributing atmpsphere and decide just to take a break.

But this phenomena just doesn't happen with abroad Eurovision-fans: people you rarely meet and who are easier to like due to the fact that their different cultural behaviour may be interpreted as a lack of conflicts and lack of oddness. Another thing that Peter, our little Eurovision fan, might saw when he watched Eurovision, is how attractive everything looks when it lacks your own cultural filter. You know your own nation and its roles and laws for what is accepted and what's popular. But you don't have this natural sense with people from abroad, and they don't have it in relation to you. That's what make them accept you, and that's what make you accept them. At least when it all starts.

And that's what makes the Eurovision week - the big event, the diamond and the pearl of the Eurovision crown - be as attractive as hell for the fans, artists, and everyone who is an illusion seeker. Watching Eurovision gives you a hope, a dream, a relief from the cruel boring world you live in. Mingling with the local Eurovision society gives you an opportunity to build yourself upon satisfying some of your needs. But the Eurovision week? it makes all of those dreams and wishes come true. Immidiately.

And about this I'll talk on the next and final part of the article.

I'm trying to find an answer to the million-dollar question of Eurovision: Why do some people become fans?

I remember being 16 and thinking to myself: how lucky I am, to be a fan of the Eurovision Song contest. This way I avoid all the usual adolescence conflicts about wanting to belong. I don't need to belong, because I already belong to the greatest thing ever - the group of Eurovision fans. I know fans from all over the world and I meet fans from Israel on a regular basis. We all have the same interests and desires, we all have similar personality traits, and we all follow the national finals through the Eurovision perioud and count the days till the Eurovision night (yeah, then it was only one final and one night).

So I felt lucky. On some dates I even felt luckier, because I felt an even greater sense of belonging. The day when the draw for performance order for Eurovision 2000 was exposed, for example. I remember printing the page with all the country names and carrying it to school in my wallet, taking it out at reccess time and looking at it, feeling proud to be a part. Feeling proud to be interested in this contest together with all those other people. I remember seeing "the Eurovision Preview" appearing on the TV guide and then walking around so happy for a whole week, because I had a once-in-a-year event to wait for. And I knew that there were others who looked forward for this together with me.

Years passed and I grew up. As the world of internet developed, I got to take part in internet groups dedicated to Eurovision, to know more and more fans, and to even travel to the Eurovision Song Contest. Twice. I also happened, as it is with many fans, to loose interest in the contest at some point. I came to despise it for a while and stop following it, and then realized that it will always be a part of me. So I returned to like it, but this time in a more mature way, and with new insights. In all those years of sticking to Eurovision or going away from it, one question never left me: Why? Why am I, and more people, are attracted to this contest and are choosing to follow it obsessively every year, from the moment the hosting city is announced, till the very final and sad moment when the stage is taken apart?

This is a common question and many other fans also tried to find an answer to it. Through the years, I got to hear all kinds of fan-explenations. The most common explanation ties Eurovision with the gay community. It claims that Eurovision is popular among the gays because it's all about show and glam and extravasion, and that's what gays like. I'm not gonna say that there's nothing true in this explanation, because everybody knows that Eurovision really has to do a lot with gays, and that if you meet a male Eurovision fan, there's 99% precent he's gay, and that Eurovision male artists are always gays so ESC female-fans should never make themselves look stupid and fall in love with them. But this theory does not explain WHY do gays love show and glam and everything that shines, neither does it explain why some gays DO NOT find Eurovision attractive, and it also does not explain what attracts female fans to the contest. And no, Eurovision is not a feminine event, as one female fan tried once to explain the fact that only girls & gays like it. The girls who like Eurovision are usually very special and not typical women or typical in any other respect.

Due to the fact that no one managed to explain in a reasonable way the phenomena of Eurovision fandom, I tried to dig deeper into my brain and find an answer all by myself. I came to many theories, and I keep coming up with new explenations and interpretations as I get to know the world of Eurovision better with each and every Eurovision year. Still, I have many holes in my theories, and therefore I thought it would be good to make them written and let others read them and raise new ideas.

My first-ever theory relating to Eurovision fans is called "The theory of Divas & Gays". In contrast to what it may sound, it's not about sexual preference at all, but about types of personality. I met a lot of Eurovision fans through the years and came to a conclusion that the Eurovision society has a main theme of admiration and worshiping. I noticed two types of people in this society, two types that you rarely find in other social groups. The first type I called "The gay". The "gay" is nice, social and friendly. He never fights and never criticises, but he's also a little bit shy, insecure, needy and premature and therefore needs a strong figure to extract power from. This power becomes available to him by means of the second personality type, "The Diva". The "diva", as you can understand, is a dominant figure who is also a big attention-seeker. She needs the spotlight on her face and body 24-hours a day. She believes that there's no "bad" or "good" attention, only...attention. And she'd do anything in order to be noticed. She fights, she says unaccepted things, she dresses provocatively or just strange and she even literaly asks people to give her attention and love her. She also needs a big group of "fans" around her.

The "Diva", as one can expect, attracts "Gays". And the diva and the gays feed each other's needs. The gays talk to the diva, give her compliments on her clothes and good-looks, and follow her movements in order to be inspired and impressed. The Diva, in return, gives them...the chance to be close to her and be inspired. Sometimes a very strange thing happens: the "gays" need to admire more than the "diva" needs to be admired. Then you can see how the gays create their own divas, divas that have never even nominated themeselves to be divas. It is done, for example, by spreading over-excitement around a new member that is joining the ESC fans community and by talking all day-long about his good traits and how he's different from all the rest. The gays are also in charge of crowning new divas and dissmissing the old ones. And it keeps happening all the time, because there can only be one diva. Therefore, when a new one is coming, the old one is automaticly loosing her honour and needs to find new tricks in order to draw attention all over again.

As it seems at first glance, the "diva" is a lucky figure who gets to be a queen and boost her self-esteem, but the game really belongs to the "gays". They may worship another and abandon their self-respect in order to glorify someone else, but they do it because they enjoy it and need it. Besides, without their glorification the diva does not exist. I may add that The "gay" does not need to be really gay. He can also be straight, but I called him "gay" due to the phenomena of many gays liking strong dominant idols like Celine dion or Lady gaga. The "diva" too, does not need to be a woman, even though she usually is.

And what does it have to do with Eurovision? Well, Eurovision is also about worshiping, crowning queens and then throwing them away to the garbage after typical 15 minutes. Every year we ESC fans have national finals who present new songs and new performers to our ears and eyes. When a certain preselection takes place, all the fans are watching it and are choosing their favorites. Wait, "choosing" may not be the right word - it's more like focusing on a prey and catching it with both hands. "Wowwwwww what an amazing song! It's the best song I heard in years in this contest!!!" "If it wins this final, it surely wins in Eurovision also!!!!" That's a common reaction. And you may not forget that we are not talking about masterpieces, but about three-minutes songs which usually have bad lyrics and a too-catchy form. And the fans know it. And still, the favorites are over-glorified. And then, when a favorite does not win, it's automaticly forgotten. Because it's time to move on to the next national-final and choose a new favorite. Maybe a few months later, when people would want to remember old songs that didn't make it to Eurovision - unfortunately - that song's name would be mentioned, like a name of an old beloved king in the books of history, which didn't make it because other, crueler and stronger kings, made it instead.

And then we have Eurovision itself. And it's winner which is forgotten exactly a second after Eurovision is over. And we also have the host country, who is a queen for a whole year, and its fan-citizens feel so proud. But then they are abandoned as soon as the new winner in announced, and their country reaches one-before-last place, as if last year's victory just meant nothing. It's also the same with Eurovision artists. They are also heroes for 15 minutes, or for a whole week of rehearsals. They can be nothing at all in their mother-land but now everybodey are taking pictures of them and want their authograf or want to hear things that they say, mostly in bad english, at the press conferences. But a day after Eurovision, or maybe even a day after they didn't make it to the final, they are gone. Mentaly and also physicly, because they usually fly back home and can't bare it to stay near the Eurovision atmosphere after they are already not a part of the game.

Eurovision fans, in my opinion, has something to do with worshiping - and with the other extreme edge - abandoning. That's why they are attracted to the Eurovision Song Contest, which uses-and-throws away artists even  faster then viewers of reality shows abadnon their season-winners. It happens so quicly that it's almost absurd.

This was my first theory. It has some logic, hasn't it? It explains what fans and their beloved Eurovision has in common better than the "gays love glam" theory, in my opinion. But still, I felt that it lacked something. Because it does not explain why, at the first place, Eurovision fans need to exercise worshiping and casting away so much. And so came my second theory.

My second theory is called "The attention deficit theory". I came up with it after I noticed that many Eurovision fans has an attention deficit - ADD or ADHD but mostly the first one. Having an attention deficites explains first the fact that ESC fans almost always become devoted fans: It's well-known that an ADD person just cannot concentrate when something does not interest him. On the other hand, he finds it super-easy to lose himself completely for something when he IS interested and attracted. Eurovision fans are among the most devoted fans that exist in this world. When fans of singers and bands, for example, meet, there's always the one who's more devoted than the others. But in the Eurovision world, almost everyone is obsessive. Almost 50% of the fans (if not more) go on a Eurovision-trip every year, and you may bear it in mind that it's a trip that costs a fortune: Tickets to three shows, hotel rooms, flights, food, shopping and more. But it does not look crazy for them (or should I say us), to work all year long and save money only to finance Eurovision expenses, and then go and take a flight and follow it, wherever it may be held, north, south, east or west of Europe.

But let's take a look at Eurovision itself - isn't it the greatest event for attention deficits? It's a contest of short songs that end just a moment after they've started, so that everybody can concentrate and listen to them without falling asleep. It's clearly the opposite of classical music pieces which take so much attention and patience - a torture for the typical ESC fan, even though there are some fans who do like classical music too. Apart for the lengh issue, the songs are all about catching an immidiate attention. You don't have to listen to them a few times in order to like them. One time is enough in order to digest them well and understand them, maybe also in order to learn the melody by heart. And they are not only simple - they are also very remarkable. The opening is always something you remember, whether it's a simple a-capella solo voice, or a bombastic drum-rolls sound with full orchestra. The name of the game is "standing out" and "being remembered". The performance itself also stays in the same style of becoming bold - there's always a gimmic, even though the gimmic can be as simple as "I'm standing on an empty stage with only my guitar". The clothes and stage customs are also always remarkable - and it does not necessarily mean beautiful. It can also be very ugly and pointless, like Lydia's pride-flag from spain 1999, but it's still very memorable.

Anyone with an attention deficite knows how it's boring and impossible to keep on doing the same thing. An attention-deficited person must always start new things, or start old things all over again, from the start, because people with attention deficite just like to start. A start is when you still think you can make it right, before your impatience is ruining everything again and making a not-perfect result. And so it is with Eurovision. It erases itself every year and starts all over again. Preselection is following preselection. and the rollercoaster ride is so fast and you get to like a new song almost every day. You can also rank the 40 or so songs in a whole different way every day and have a completely new top 10 and it would still be okay and acceptable in the ESC world. It's changing and it's as dynamic as hell.

So to sum up, Eurovision is a contest, and therefore the emphasis is on memorability and standing out, and that may be what makes those people, who like it catchy and simple and fast-food like, to be so attracted to it.

I bet you can see, too, the many similar lines and meeting-points between those two theories of mine. Both explain why Eurovision, with its bold, memorable and catchy features, is attracting certain kinds of fans. But each one of thise theories is giving only one angle of the picture, but not the whole painting in it's frame as it's hanged on the wall and everything. And this is why I came up with the third theory, which is also the latest and therefore not so formulised. I don't have a catchy name for it yet, but it has to do with something that both "gays", "divas" or people who find it hard to concentrate has in common. And about this I'm going to tell on part two of this so-called "article".

Read the second part of this article here!