The nostalgic optimism of Eurovision 2021
It may be a kind of cultural marmite, but to me Eurovision is an opportunity to embrace spectacle and fantasy, frequently to a camp extreme. Through the costumes, staging, and pyrotechnics our collective hopes, struggles, ambitions, and feelings are projected and turned up to eleven. Despite the global circumstances, the performances in 2021 were no different, and looking at the creative choices on stage it seems we can see a set of optimistic visions for the coming years being made manifest. Two key themes emerged in the costuming (and in some cases staging) in this year’s Eurovision performances through references to specific decades: more than anything else, popular culture in the 1920s and 1980s made a big comeback on the Grand Finale stage this year.
A distillation of the Roaring 20’s, at least as remembered in contemporary pop culture, was represented by a series of silver bodysuits with beaded fringe - a 21st century pop star-meets-flapper style - repeated across multiple performances with dance routines to make the most of the fringe as much as any charleston could.
The heavy 1920s flapper references show 2021 pop culture leaning into the hope, already often suggested in media and particularly fashion commentary, that post-lockdowns Europe and the US will be ushered into a 21st century “roaring 20s”. Like the rest of us still bundled up to drink pints outside, Eurovision performers reflect a readiness to return to dancing, cocktail parties, and general all-night extravagance.
However the 1920s wasn’t the only theme that appeared across performances. The second was costuming and staging that drew on the exuberant economic and tech optimism of 1980s American style and culture. Cropped jackets, shoulder pads, and neon leggings featured repeatedly across performances, and while not straight from the vintage shop, they seemed to be heavily indebted to ‘power dressing’ and Dynasty-inspired styles of the 80s. Belgium’s singer, Geike Arnaert of Hooverphonic, while relatively toned-down in all-black, nodded to this in a shoulder-padded mini dress. Likewise, Lithuania’s lead singer, Vaidotas Valiukevičius from THE ROOP, appeared on stage in a cross between an MC Hammer outfit (those cropped suit jackets didn’t get their fair attention compared to the pants) and a zoot suit, and the Netherlands’ lead performer donned a similarly cropped, shoulder padded tailored jacket paired with a kind of upbeat punk aesthetic. Even Italy’s winning band - ostensibly a metal performance - channeled the 1980’s hair metal era in their laced-up, flared leather trousers and vests, although admittedly with more contemporary, less teased hair than would have been seen 35 years ago.
The 80s have continued to be a cyclical influence on fashion, so on its own a few shoulder pads may not seem a meaningful trend. But looking at the staging, the lights and imagery frequently reinforced these sartorial references, conjuring up the tech fantasies of 80s science fiction films and popular imagery. Israel’s performers, led by Eden Alene, for example, seemed to exist within an exuberant neon set that could be the platonic ideal of a 1980s arcade game. And while Ukraine’s staging and costuming seemed to be evoking a kind of pagan forest ritual, the backdrop appeared to be a reprisal of Tron (although strangely with less convincing special effects). Here potentially there is more of a commentary on our current relationship to technology and our increasing distance from nature rather than a sense of techno-futurist optimism, but nonetheless the 80s aesthetics here serve as a route for bringing up the era of massive technological change that we are living through yet again.
Ukraine’s Neo-Pagan Ritual within a technological alternate reality
Moldova, in fact, seemed to hedge its bets combining the 20s flapper fringe with a similarly Tron-esque neon background display.
These decades may seem fairly disconnected as references (except, perhaps, the popular psychoactive substances at the time) but they seem to share a general characteristic of seeking social change (as reflected in many performances by BIPOC performers and some, such as the Jeangu Macrooy’s song for The Netherlands, directly addressing issues of inequality and post-colonialism) and economic optimism, and the use of the two as reference points in 2021 seem significant. While I don’t claim to be an economic historian, the two decades seem to be characterised economically by a belief in the market and at least a select group of people having wild success through stock market booms (I feel the need to point out the existence of this book for example).
However both decades also encapsulated major social shifts. The post-war 1920s saw people and artists dealing with social upheaval, breaking dramatically with traditions, and looking to new ways of living and self-expression. Fashion and pop culture in the 1980s likewise reflected an economic and technological optimism through bright colours, costume jewellery, and hair and clothing that verged on excessive. At least in the versions of 80s style that is still memorialized and mimicked today, people dressed themselves to almost camp levels of aspiration, whether that be rebellious wackiness (Cyndi Lauper comes to mind) or wealth and glamour and power-dressing (inspired by Dynasty, of course). At the same time that fashion was reflecting an individualist freedom and optimism, pop culture and the imagery that filled it was often showing a fascination with the technological advances of the time and the potentials it had (just think of venturing inside the internet, and that touch screen desk in Tron).
The performances at this year’s Eurovision, then, reflect a widespread cultural aspiration for what might emerge post-pandemic; an appropriate theme, really, for one of the first large music events to happen in Europe after lockdown. More than frivolous sequins, these costumes and visual displays reflected an optimism for economic prosperity to emerge out of a historic low, and for the possibilities offered by social upheaval and rapid technological change that we have all experienced. The international mood is one of hope, looking to historic examples for what we might be able to look forward to. The Eurovision stage might not offer all the answers to social and political issues, but it at least helps us come together (see what I did there??) in these aspirations and inspire us to look to how things could be. I, for one, would be happy if some beaded leotards are in fact the outcome of these past 18 months, but I’ll also take just about any dance floor, regardless of the outfit.
