Three Minute Slovenia

              When it comes to a national song contest like Eurovision, there is much to be said regarding diversity from the performances and people. Despite having made its Eurovision Song Contest debut in 1993, Slovenia still has made an imprint showcasing the different identities from the country that appear to be relatively positive towards diversity. In examining the past two performances (discounting Slovenia’s selection this year) there is a rather dramatic shift in mood or genre of music and symbolism that Slovenia appears to try and execute. There are feminist or “radical” identities in parts of Slovenia that are represented, as a way for the country to voice their opinions on the ongoing universal debate for gender equality. There is a level of appeal to an international audience as many of Slovenia’s songs are performed in their native language or in English. However, given their short timeline of involvement...

It is difficult to cement a singular and cohesive definition for the term, “national identity”. It is as abstract as many socio- and psychological concepts that are rewritten and argued time after time due to its ambiguity. At first glance, national identity can be recognized as a continuous ladder of “binary oppositions”, or mankind identifying an “other” and then defining ourselves against it (Mandler, P. 2006). It also relates to the idea of “nationalism”, where nations take pride into the history it has built itself upon. But when we further inspect this notion, it is revealed that there are many aspects to what factors into “national identity”, such as: culture, religion, politics, and more. By looking at national identity on a global scale, we take into consideration of how this open-ended terminology applies in many different countries striving to formulate an entirely unique identity.               In this blog...