Distinguished Member of the Euro(trash) Family? Israeli Self-Representation in the Eurovision Song Contest

Israel has been competing in the Eurovision song contest, Europe's biggest music festival, since 1973. The spectacle is a formidable arena for participating countries to shape their image and brand their nations. At the same time, its distinctively European character challenges Israelis, whose country is one of the few located outside the continent's geographical borders, to grapple with their social, cultural, and political affiliations with Europe and its institutions. Against this backdrop, the article traces the participation of the Jewish state in Eurovision and the debates this has generated in the Israeli public in order to investigate the shifts that have occurred in the country's self-representation and thereby, the messages Israel has sought to convey to Europeans.