Critiquing the National Brand
Joshua
Franco-Lee
Dr.
Green
UCOR
1400-15
22 March 2018
Critiquing the National Brand
There is more depth within the Eurovision song contest
than just competing to win. The contest also provides countries, specifically
smaller countries, with the ability to present themselves and their culture to
the rest of Europe. This process, where a country sculpts how it is seen by
other countries, is known as nation branding. This is done by a majority of the
eastern European countries in the contest, including Turkey. However, how a
country portrays themselves may not always align perfectly with their national
identity. In this blog, I will be comparing and contrasting Turkey’s national
identity with their Eurovision performances in order to see how well the two
align, and critique the national brand as a whole.
National identity is a country’s way of distinguishing
itself from its neighboring countries. In my first blog post, I stated that the
two main factors contributing to Turkish national identity are religion and
their significant other. However, after further research I realized how
important language and music are to their national identity. Language is a key
part of Turkey’s national identity because they are the only country to
prominently use the Turkish dialect. Music is equally meaningful to Turkey as
it is to many other countries. Music, especially folk, allows the Turkish
people to express themselves and their history.
In Turkey’s last three Eurovision performances, they send
two very clear messages: that they are both a diverse and joyful country. This
is Turkey branding themselves, shaping the way other countries see them. From
the year 2010 to 2012, Turkey sent 2 songs to the Eurovision stage about
diversity and acceptance. Through these performances, Turkey has branded
themselves as a diverse and welcoming nation. However, the question stands: how
much does this national brand align with their true national identity?
The Turks pride themselves on aspects of their culture
such as language and religion, but many of these aspects are not very present
in their performances. Aspects of religion are completely absent from any of
Turkey’s performances in recent years. However, this isn't surprising due to
Eurovision’s strict policy against political messages. Religion, especially
Islam, can be seen as a political message, so it is no surprise that Turkey
doesn’t incorporate religion into their performances- they are trying to keep
from potentially being disqualified.
While rock music has been fairly popular in Turkey since after
WWII, the most popular music in the country is folk music (Turkish Culture
Portal, 2018). However, Turkey has not played any folk songs in their recent
performances. Instead, Turkey has played two rock songs and one pop song in
their three most recent Eurovision submissions. The only traditional musical
elements present in these performers is in Can Bonomo’s song “Love Me Back”
(Turkey, 2012). In blog post two, I had failed to mention that the
instrumentals in the song represent that of traditional Turkish music mixed
with western pop. Turkey is in a double-bind in this situation. The
country may be labeled as a sellout for performing more western style music,
such as rock or pop. However, if Turkey sticks to tradition and performs
traditional music, they are seen as not being modern and as self-orientalizing.
This puts Turkey in a complicated situation, having to decide between seeming
like a sellout to western nations or appearing to be not modern. Turkey has
chosen the first of the two, playing more modern, western music. This is likely
Turkey focusing more on winning the competition, rather than trying to show off
their traditions and culture. Branding like this begins to veer away from their
established national identity.
Turkey has also completely disregarded their national
language when performing in the contest, deciding to instead opt for singing in
English instead. This is strange, seeing as though the Turks are quite prideful
of their language. This could be for many reasons, including the fact that
Turkey is trying very hard to win the contest, or that they are attempting to
show off that they are a diverse and modern nation that has more than just
Turkish speaking citizens. Most likely this is going along with a strategy to
get more votes in the competition. Seeing that English is the most commonly
understood language in Europe, and is the most popular language used in
Eurovision, it is easily inferred that Turkey has dropped their national
language to give them an advantage in the contest.
Turkey shows themselves as being a very diverse nation
through their performances, with two songs explicitly about diversity and
equality. The song “We could be the same” by magNa, is about equality and
accepting diversity (2010, Turkey). In 2011 they sent the song “Live It Up” by
Yüksek Sadakat, which is about being yourself (2011, Turkey). The last song
they sent was “Love Me Back” by Can Bonomo (2012, Turkey). Unlike the previous
two submissions, this song does not explicitly show any attitudes towards
diversity. That being said, upon further research I found that the artist, Can
Bonomo, is actually Jewish, which is a minority group in Turkey. However, the
viewpoints expressed in the songs are not mirrored by the country. Turkey has
had a long standing conflict with the Kurdish people, being at war with them
since 1984 (Council on Foreign Relations, 2018). This is directly opposed to
the attitudes of diversity that are present in their performances. Furthermore,
relations between Israel and Turkey plummeted in 2010 following the killing of
up to nine Turks in a naval raid in Gaza (New York Times, 2010). This caused
tension between Israel and Turkey that is present to this day. This does not
support the themes of diversity that are present in these performances, as
Turkey is currently at conflict with two ethnic groups both the Kurds and the
Israeli.
Additionally, Turkey has also used the atmosphere of these
performances to promote themselves as a country. In recent years, Turkey has
sent only upbeat songs with brightly colored stagings. All three of Turkey’s
songs that I analyzed had upbeat rhythms and positive lyrics. This is a
strategy to make viewers associate Turkey with an upbeat, happy, and welcoming
vibe. This not only helps their national image, but furthermore, promotes
tourism. Tourism is very important in Turkey because it contributes to national
income. Turkey is using Eurovision as a tool to advertise themselves to the
other nations participating in the contest.
Turkey is not a stranger to using the Eurovision song contest as a
way to brand and advertise themselves as a country. They have done this by
manipulating the way they are portrayed through their performances, thus
choosing how other countries see them. However, they have also focused a lot of
resources in the competition towards winning. This makes it more difficult to
find their national brand. The national brand Turkey has created through
Eurovision is one of a diverse nation; the primary two aspects that keep
appearing in their performances are diversity and positivity. Through the
repeated implementation of these two aspects, viewers of Eurovision will begin
to associate Turkey with these characteristics. When associated with these
characteristics Turkey appears to be a very joyful and happy country, in which
people would like to visit. Thus they have branded themselves as a diverse
nation, and a desired destination for tourism. Additionally, they have also
branded themselves as a competitive country, sacrificing more traditional
aspects from their performances in exchange for ones that give them a better
chance of winning. The overall brand Turkey has set for themselves in
Eurovision, is as a competitive, but also diverse country. Over the course of
their Eurovision career, Turkey has created a national brand for themselves.
However, this brand that the Turks have created is not so in line with their
national identity. While their performances in Eurovision have painted
themselves as a diverse country, this just isn't true. The population of Turkey
is 70-75% Turkish, with the largest minority being the Kurdish with around 19%
(The CIA World Factbook: Turkey, 2018). The ethnicity of the population is
slightly diverse, however; the religious diversity is not. 99.8% of the
religious community identifies as Sunni Muslim. These facts show that this
brand they have made of being diverse is misaligned with their country’s actual
diversity. Turkey has also branded themselves as being accepting, and promoting
equality. This again is not very true when it comes to actuality. Turkey has
been at war with the Kurds for close to 35 years, following the Kurdish Workers
Party’s revolt against the Turkish government over unfair working rights
(Council on Foreign Relations, 2018). Being at war with a specific ethnic group
does not show that this country is promoting equality, it only does the
opposite. Additionally, LGBTQ+ rights have become oppressed even more recently
in the Turkish capital of Ankara: “Homosexuality is legal in Turkey but
activists say homophobia is rampant… ‘18 November until further notice, all
film and theatre events, screenings, panels, colloquium, exhibitions, etc...
have been banned’” (BBC News, 2017). This exemplifies the misalignment between
the national brand and the national identity. While this statement does not
represent all of Turkey’s citizens, it is enough to show that at least the
government is not supportive of equal rights specifically towards the LGBTQ
community. Another misalignment is with Turkey’s culture, specifically the
language and music traditions. Language in Turkey is very important to their
national identity because they are the only country in the world who primarily
speaks Turkish. This fact also gives Turkey’s people a sense of pride in their
language. However, in the Eurovision Song contest they have dropped Turkish
altogether, and have sang only in English in recent years. Turkey has also
failed to implement many cultural aspects into their performances, the only
example being some instrumentals in Can Bonomo’s “Love Me Back” (2012, Turkey).
This is misaligned from their national identity because they have chosen to
leave out valuable aspects of their culture to instead promote their country as
a tourist destination and to have a better chance at winning the contest.
Overall, Turkey’s performances and national brand have been very misaligned
with their national identity, choosing to falsely advertise themselves and to
not include parts of their culture in their performances.
References:
Can Bonomo. (2012). Love
Me Back. (Turkey). Eurovision Song Contest, 2012, Baku. [DVD].
Baku,
Azerbaijan: European Broadcasting Network.
Retrieved from, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qa7_y21oOY
(2018). Global Conflict
Tracker. Council on Foreign Relations,
Retrieved from, https://www.cfr.org/interactives/global-conflict-tracker#!/conflict/kurdish-conflict
Kershner Isabel. (2010)
Deadly Israeli Raid Draws Condemnation. New York Times,
maNga. (2010). We Could
Be The Same. (Turkey). Eurovision Song Contest, 2010, Oslo. [DVD]. Oslo,
Norway: European Broadcasting Network.
Retrieved from, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB_GnnhNz-8
(2018, January 05). The
World Factbook: TURKEY. Central Intelligence Agency,
(2018). Turkey in the
Eurovision Song Contest. Eurovision Song Contest,
Retrieved from, https://eurovision.tv/country/turkey/profile
(2017, November 19).
Turkish capital Ankara bans all gay rights functions. British Broadcasting
Network,
Retrieved from, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42043910
(2018). Turkish Culture
Foundation. Turkish Culture,
Retrieved from, http://www.turkishculture.org/
Yüksek Sadakat. (2011).
Live It Up. (Turkey). Eurovision Song Contest, 2011, Düsseldorf. [DVD].
Düsseldorf, Germany: European Broadcasting Network.
Retrieved from, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Ew5qYzo9k
Comments
Post a Comment