People all over Europe avidly watched the Eurovision Song Contest last Saturday. But the European press writes that the competition in Moscow was about more than music.

Die Welt (Germany) | 18/05/2009

While Europe’s politicians do nothing to stir our hearts in the run-up to the European elections, the Eurovision Song Contest is bringing Europe – and Europeans – together, Romanus Otte writes in the daily Die Welt:

“For me all the advertisements and posters for the European election are nothing but barefaced cheek. They say almost nothing about Europe, don’t make any proposals for it, and above all elicit zero enthusiasm for Europe. … Luckily some small consolation is offered by Eurovision. There are plenty of good reasons to turn up one’s nose at the Song Contest. But once more Saturday’s Grand Prix was also a deeply moving European celebration. The sea of flags waved by the boisterous crowd that had come together from the four corners of Europe reminded one of the Last Night of the Proms in London. There were singers from states I would have left out altogether if I’d been asked to name the countries of Europe. And they were a great reminder of how big Europe is, how peaceful, and how novel such a situation is at all.”

De Standaard (Belgium) | 18/05/2009

The Eurovision Song Contest is the most successful example of European cooperation, writes author Oscar van den Boogard in the daily De Standaard, noting that more can be achieved with “bad music” than with bad policies:

“The ban on the homosexual demonstration last Saturday in Moscow shows that gays are still having to rebel strongly against a regime that does not accept them. Their sweet revenge was the song contest itself. One couldn’t have conceived an event with more gay counter-culture and a greater audience. The Norwegian winner Alexander Rybak put it like this: ‘Let’s just say that the timing of the parade was not ideal. But this evening we had the greatest gay parade in the world here.’ Can the song contest move voters to go to the ballot for the European elections in early June? Televoting is easy, but going to the election office is ’sooo difficult’. What exactly do the politicians mean when they talk about Europe? Only a boy with a violin who sings about a fairytale [Rybak with his song Fairytale] can really fire our imaginations.”

Sega (Bulgaria) | 18/05/2009

The daily Sega contends that the Eurovision Song Contest is politically controlled, citing the example of a Georgian song that was disqualified because of its lyrics:

“Those who claim that this year’s Eurovision was not politically manipulated are certainly not telling the truth. … In the days leading up to and following March 17 the radio station Echo Moskwy [Moscow's echo] covered the scandal over the song ‘We don’t wanna put in’ that was to represent Georgia in Moscow. Even the participation of this country in the contest would have been seen as a breakthrough after Georgia and Russia broke off diplomatic relations with each other as a result of the military conflict last year. But on March 17 the organisers refused to allow the Georgians to participate on the grounds that the text contained an insult to ‘a head of state’.”

Eesti Päevaleht (Estonia) | 18/05/2009

The Estonian daily Eesti Päevaleht comments on the Eurovision Song Contest in the context of the country’s empty treasury and the dire impact of the economic crisis:

“With this in mind it’s just as well that Urban Symphony finished a civilised and fully respectable sixth on Saturday night at the finals of the Eurovision contest in Moscow. Because like the other Baltic states and in contrast to the Kingdom of Norway, the Republic of Estonia would not be able to scrape together the cash to host the finals next year [which are automatically organised by the winner of the previous year]. Financing this celebration with a loan would be reminiscent of the country bumpkin who takes out a loan to give his daughter a luxurious wedding even though he knows the young lovers will have parted by the time the debt is paid off.”