Montenegro Nation Branding

Montenegro National Branding
            Eurovision Song Contest is a place where many people all around the world get a three-minute glimpse of each country who participates. Someone’s view of a country could come from what they see on stage because the performance is the only exposure they get of the country. Countries participating could convey a national brand through the Eurovision’s performances. Keith Dinnie defines national branding in National Branding Concepts, Issues, Practice as a “highly politicized activity” that frequently creates “conflicting viewpoints and opinions” (Dinnie p.38). Some benefits that come with national branding are, getting more tourist, an improvement on the country’s reputation, and economic benefits. From Montenegro’s three performances evaluated in blog two, all three had either alignment or misalignment with Montenegro’s national branding.
            National branding aligns with how a country wants to demonstrate their national identity. Based on Oxford Living Dictionaries, national identity is “a sense of a nation as a cohesive whole” (Oxford Living Dictionaries). National identity is a way for someone to have a sense of belonging to a state or a nation, and having a sense of belonging includes having a common interest such as language, religion, and ethnicity. In blog one, Montenegro's national identity was anaylzed. Montenegro’s national identity is based on their language, their religion, and the borders that they created, separating them from their neighboring countries. Montenegro is a small country, which means that there some people who do not know what and where Montenegro is. To have Eurovision Song Contest be the only place people learn about Montenegro means a lot because people make untrue assumptions based on little information they are exposed to. The performances could bring more tourism, and more votes for Montenegro. However, two out of the three performances in blog two did not represent Montenegro’s national identity, and one performance brought a few controversies.
             In 2015, Knez represented Montenegro with a balled song Aido and came in 13th place at the national finals. Knez was able to give Montenegro it’s highest scoring in Eurovision. Aido by Knez was a balled song sang in Montenegrin, which proves how non-English songs can place in the top 20. Knez represented Montenegro’s national identity by singing in Montenegro’s official language. Montenegro’s language is one way Montenegrins separate themselves from other countries, and a way Montenegrins identify themselves. Montenegrin is closely related to Serbian, Croatian, and other close neighboring countries’ languages. However, there is a difference, so for Knez to sing in Montenegrin and place 13th, could potentially expose viewers to an unknown language.
            Knez’s performance of Aido aligns with Montenegro’s national branding. By exposing viewers to Montenegro’s official language, could potentially bring more tourists to Montenegro. As mentioned before, some audience members have no idea what and where Montenegro is, so by the three-minute stage and camera time Montenegro gets to expose millions of audience members to what and who Montenegro is; is a great way to expand the amount of tourist and the number of votes Montenegro receives. Furthermore, by distinguishing Montenegrin from other relatively similar languages, shows Montenegro’s independence in 2006, which is a beneficial factor to national branding.
            Montenegro’s view of sexuality is highly swayed towards heterosexual, and homosexual or any other sexualities are seen as abnormal. When it comes to the question, is Montenegro for or against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders (LGBT), Montenegro is neither for or against LGBTs. In Montenegro, it is legal to be LGBT, but LGBTs are not recognized, in a sense that there are no legal rights for LGBT to express themselves publicly; and same-sex marriage is illegal. However, based from The Danish Institute for Human Rights, most of the population is against LGBTs, and the population who are against LGBTs has the opinion that being LGBT is a negative identity and does not want LGBTs to express their identity publicly (The Danish Institute for Human Rights). Being LGBT and being a citizen in Montenegro is highly risky, but there are events occurring such as the LGBT pride parade on September 23, 2017, in the capital of Montenegro where 200 people marched for LGBT rights (RFE/RL’s Balkan Service). The pride parade publicly exposing anti-LGBTs to LGBT pride, and is a way for LGBTs to express their identity publicly and freely.
            The band Highway represented Montenegro with the song The Real Thing in 2016. In blog two, I explained that the song was telling a story of a male figure saving a female figure who are in a relationship. Nevertheless, after analyzing the song and performance more, I now understand that the song The Real Thing by Highway is a sexual song about a male and a female. Most of Montenegro has the mindset of heteronormativity. Heteronormativity is when heterosexuality is natural and normal while other sexualities are unnatural and abnormal. Therefore, when Highway performed The Real Thing, there were no controversies because most of Montenegro think with a mindset of heteronormativity.
Being exposed to heterosexual interactions, songs, and assumptions is a normal routine. Highway singing The Real Thing is a representation of a Eurovision performance aligning with the country’s national branding and the country’s view of Eurovision. Montenegro wants to be represented properly at Eurovision. Montenegro wants to be seen as a heterosexual country, although being homosexual is legal, homosexuals are seen as a negative sexuality and unnatural. When Highway represented Montenegro with The Real Thing, which supported Montenegro’s view of heteronormativity, the performance did not create any opposing views due to the performance’s alignment with Montenegro’s national branding.
            In 2017, Montenegro sent Slavko Kalezic with the song Space to Eurovision. In blog two, I wrote about how Space by Slavko Kalezic was a song about a forbidden love. However, after analyzing the song and performance more, I now understand that the song represented sexual activities, and the song was geared towards LGBTs. Kalezic’s performance may have entertained some international audiences, however, his performance had appalled many people back in Montenegro who, according to Balkan Insight, deemed it as “an insult to traditional values” (Balkan Insight). There were controversies between Kalezic and Montenegro because Montenegro as a country was not pleased that Kalezic represented LGBTs at Eurovision. Some audience members may view Kalezic’s performance as pink-washing, pink-washing is when a country tries to appeal to more liberal individuals. However, due to the controversies with Montenegro and Kalezic following the performance, Kalezic’s performance would not be considered as pink-washing. A pink-washing performance would be when a country purposely sends a performance that appeals to more liberal individuals, and in Montenegro’s case, Kalezic was not purposely sent by Montenegro to attract more liberal individuals.
            Slavko Kalezic’s performance of Space at Eurovision is a representation of a performance’s misalignment with the country’s national branding. Montenegro had no intentions to be represented as pro-LGBT in front of a live audience. Montenegro’s citizens do not like Kalezic because they think he does not represent Montenegro in a proper way. Alan Crosby writes that Kalezic “makes no apologies for his artistic interpretations, onstage or off” and that Kalezic takes no time to recognize those who are against his “flamboyant costumes and style as symbols of Western decadence” (Crosby). Kalezic having no apologies shows that he is not afraid to go against what Montenegro wants, even if his performance creates conflicting viewpoints.
            With the three performances evaluated in blog two, the performances from 2015 and 2016 had an alignment to Montenegro’s national branding. Knez’s performance of Aido in 2015 had an alignment to Montenegro’s national identity, which was analyzed in blog one. The performance from 2017 had misalignments to Montenegro’s national branding. Slavko Kalezic’s performance in 2017 of the song Space, caused the up-ringing of Montenegro’s conflicting views of LGBT. By considering the three very different performances and how the three aligns and misaligns with Montenegro’s national branding, Montenegro’s view of how they want to be represented at Eurovision is acknowledged.
The Eurovision Song Contest is where each country gets a public stage for them to be represented. Based on 2015’s performance of Aido by Knez, Montenegro wants to make it clear that Montenegro is an independent country and that their official language, Montenegrin, is different from relatively similar languages. From 2016’s performance of The Real Thing by Highway, Montenegro is expressed as a heterosexual country. Concluding that most of Montenegro’s population have the mindset of heteronormativity, and has the opinion of anyone having a non-heterosexuality is abnormal. Both performance of 2015 and 2016, aligns with Montenegro’s intention for national branding of expanding viewers knowledge of Montenegro, and to make Montenegro’s viewpoint clear. The performance that had a misalignment with Montenegro’s intentions of national branding is Slavko Kalezic’s Space performance in 2017. Montenegro does not want to be seen as a pro-LGBT country, and Kalezic’s performance makes a clear statement that the song Space, is supporting LGBTs.
Having one out of three performances misalign with Montenegro’s national branding shows how Montenegro does not watch and listen to each performance before sending them to represent Montenegro as a whole. By having controversies between performer and the country, paints a picture that although it has been about 10 to 11 years since Montenegro debut as a separate nation, Montenegro does not have the desire or cannot shape up performances that can represent Montenegro properly each year.


References
Crosby A. (2017). Eurovision ‘Drag Queen’ Hits Sour Note in Conservative Montenegro. RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty. Retrieved from https://www.rferl.org/a/eurovision-montenegro-drag-queen-slavko-kalezic-space/28471321.html
Dinnie K. (2008). Nation Branding: Concepts, issues, practice. Oxford. Butterworth-Heinemann. Retrieved from http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/pdf/research/books/nation_branding/Nation_Branding_-_Concepts,_Issues,_Practice_-_Keith_Dinnie.pdf
Highway. (2016). The Real Thing (Montenegro). Eurovision Song Contest 2016 Stockholm [DVD]. Baarn, NL: Universal Music Group.
Knez. (2015). Aido (Montenegro). Eurovision Song Contest 2015 Vienna. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTyi2XeeoJU
Montenegro Controversies. (2017) Montenegro Eurovision Singer Hits Wrong Note Back Home. BalkanInsight. Retrieved from http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/montenegro-s-eurovision-contestant-sparks-controversy-04-20-2017
National Identity. English: Oxford Living Dictionaries. Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/national_identity
RFE/RL’s Balkan Service. (2017). Gay Pride Parade Held in Montenegrin Capital. RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty. Retrieved from https://www.rferl.org/a/montenegro-lgbt-parade/28753277.html

Slavko Kalezic. (2017). Space (Montenegro). Eurovision Song Contest 2017 Kyiv [DVD]. Baarn, NL: Univeral Music Group.

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