Eurovision 2013: Backstage

Gohar Gasparyan – head of the Eurovision delegation from Armenia

There were many disputable issues at Eurovision this year, especially after the final, when the name of the winner became known. Right after the end the Internet was flooded with information on the plagiarized song winner.

Another disputable question was raised by Azerbaijan and Russia. As if Azerbaijan gave 10 points to Russia, but these points were not announced. On the eve of the final a video appeared on the Internet showing some people who offered money to citizens of Lithuania for a text message to be sent in favor of Azerbaijan.

But this tendency began to come forth at the Eurovision since Azerbaijan began to participate in it.

Currently the European Broadcasting Union is facing a serious problem, since they should not have allowed politics into a song contest. And politics is already there in Eurovision, otherwise, how would it be possible for the Foreign Affairs Ministers of Russia and Azerbaijan to meet over Eurovision?

What is the worth of such a victory then if it is achieved by such means?

The next scandal was caused by Ukraine that took the third place and announced that if the Danish song was plagiarism, and Azerbaijan had bought the votes, it meant that Ukraine was the winner.

There are the text message vote and the non-transparent jury vote, and we cannot say how exactly this vote happened in different countries!

All the countries that made a scandal – Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine – are former Soviet Union countries. In all former Soviet countries the lower positions in the Eurovision are taken painfully.

This year the comments under our and Azerbaijani videos at the Eurovision-2013 contest were blocked, since there was so much politics, there were so many aggressive texts, statements and mutual insults, that they decided to block access.

This year, unlike past years, we did not have any problems with Azerbaijan at Eurovision, when situations, quite awkward for us, would be created.

It should be mentioned that Eurovision is a song contest, but in the former Soviet Republics this is taken as a very serious competition.

In European countries such as France, England, and Germany, people look at Eurovision as a festive occasion, they go to this contest simply to participate. I am glad that Armenians have little by little begun to treat it differently – less seriously.