Lausanne-Zagreb via Berlin, or heading for an unforeseen Europeanness

This article discusses the Eurovision Song Contest and focuses on the two editions of the event immediately before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, i.e. the 1989 contest that was held in Lausanne and the 1990 contest in Zagreb. It attempts to figure out the different kinds of Europeanness that were outlined on the Eurovision stage before the remapping of Europe during the early 1990s. Reading closely the conformist and narcissistic Eurocentrism of the 1989 contest, as well as the touristic and sometimes patronizing attitude vis-à-vis Europe of the 1990 contest, it spells out some ways in which an emblematic televised show understood its own political dimension and reacted to the emerging realities.