Slovenian’s National Identity Though Song

Slovenian’s National Identity Through Song

 

    Slovenia was represented in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest by Tinkara Kovač, and her song, "Spet" / "Round and Round", a pop folklore song full of Eurovision tropes about the duality of love and hate that is seen in a relationship. 

            Previously I have discussed that Slovenian’s national Identity revolves largely around the Slovene language, Catholicism, and the strong unity of the Slovenian people and their ancient desire for a land to call their own. While some of these ideas are difficult to put into a three-minute song with an international (not as educated on Slovenia audience), Tinkara Kovač does try to use aspects such as the Slovene language in order to put forward a sense of Slovene identity while still appealing to the Eurovision audience with many tropes and stereotypes of a Eurovision song.

 

Kovač’s lyrics were co-written by herself, Hannah Mancini, and Aleš Vovk (Raay). Interestingly Mancini represented Slovenia at Eurovision the previous year (2013) and Raay would go onto represent Slovenia in the next year (2015). As for why she chose to have her song in Slovenian and English Kovač noted that she had different versions of the song such as versions with more languages such as Italian due to influence formed by her home in Lokev (which is in close proximity to the Italian border) but eventually decided to only include English and Slovenian. English for reaching the international audience of the Eurovision song contest and Slovenian as she stated, “as this is my home” (European Broadcasting Union, 2014). Once again showing the connection that many Slovenians have to their language (as part of their national identity) and Slovenia itself. The lyrics themselves on the other hand are far from a Eurovision novelty song and seem to tell a classic pop love song (Chalkley, 2017). With lyrics such as “You don't know you don't know / Is it love is it hate”(Kovač, 2014). The lyrics are also often repetitive, with a large part of the song simply having Kovač singing, " Round and round again we … / Round and round again we go … / Round and round again we … /Round and round again we go…”( Kovač, 2014). While this displays the idea of the cycle of love and hate in a dizzying circle (which also makes the basis for the camerawork and the main idea of the performance), it doesn’t have any significance to Slovenia’s national identity or really anything outside of a simple love song.

 

While it is a pop song, it is more along the lines of folk-pop or pop folklore. This makes sense for Slovenia as foreigners and expatriates of Slovenia (and their descendants) consider folk (more specifically Slovenian-style polka) the music of Slovenia (POLKAS.NL, 2013). Kovač’s inclusion of the flute also makes this connection to the folk style which often includes the flute and could to some extent have this be a novelty song with a genre-smashing element (Chalkley, 2017). These noises play into the more ethnic side and could almost be considered as essentialization of Slovenia (Baker, 2008). It is interesting while doing the research of different musical instruments and there significance and prevalence in Slovenia (and Central Europe in general) I found that the oldest instrument in the world is a Neanderthal flute from 50,000 years ago in the cave of Divje Babe in Slovenia (Rizzi, 2021). Showing the use of the flute and other woodwind instruments as a staple of Slovenian songs.

 

Kovač’s performance at Eurovision was rather interesting and simple for the glamor and crazy costumes that are often expected at Eurovision. Instead Kovač’s performance feature her and her background dancers in rather simple and modest clothing with little stage glamor and complication. At the start of the performance the background screen is composed of seemingly random books. I found some with titles discussing “management/supervisory” boards, others by the Alpine Association of Slovenia, and even what appeared to be a self-help/improvement book. While these titles were in Slovenian there seemed to be no other meaning other than creating an image of the Slovenian flag while once again showing the importance of the Slovenian language to the national identity of the Slovene people. The performance then starts with a wide shot of the stage then a closeup shot of Kovač playing the flute in a blue dress with three of her background singers to the left of the stage in very dark blue dresses. It is important to note that the background, and the performers clothing are all shades of blue, one of the national colors of Slovenia creating a callback to the Slovenian flag. 

Interestingly enough, the only national color of Slovenia that isn’t included in the video is red. While an orange tone is used at the end at the start of the final verse in Slovenian and while the crowd has red lights this seems to be more depicting a fire which seems to be more of a Eurovision trope and nothing really relevant to the lyrics she is singing at the moment. However, it could be a reference to Kresovanje, a bonfire party celebrating the spring solstice in Slovenia (Belančić, 2020). Bonfires have been regularly lit in Slovenian as part of tradition since Pagan times and have strong symbolism (they believe that it charges the sun for spring) and this is what Kovač could be hinting at (while unlikely) in this performance. 

Kovač’s performance was once again rather simple. With the staging simply including Kovač as the center of attention, with only minor highlighted further by stage lights and later into the video circular LED graphics on the floor. Kovač and her background singers were surprisingly static for the performance. Instead, the performance relied heavily on the camerawork and background elements to portray a sense of movement. An example of this is the camera movements that have the viewer (camera) circle Kovač in conjunction with LED graphics on the floor creating a rotating circle gives the illusion of Kovač moving “round and round” as she lyrically repeats that as well, while in reality, she is facing forward and still the whole time.

 

            While researching Kovač and the the other songwriters I found through social media posts on Kovač and interviews she seems to be an avid feminist. With in one interview her starting off by talking about Denmark, “we can learn a lot from you, for example that 50% of the politicians are women”(European Broadcasting Union, 2014). I was interested if this is why she chose to only have three female background. While this is likely just the best choice of singers due to the higher octave, they sing in it seems like there is one more background singer at the far right of the screen whose figure can only just be made out when the camera pans around Kovač. This could just be someone managing sound or some other purpose but I thought it was rather interesting if this is someone Kovač was trying to hide. However, while the lyrics don’t indicate the song really being about women empowerment while I was researching women’s suffrage in Slovenia, I found that Slovenia was a rather latecomer to women’s enfranchisement, with women only being fully enfranchised in 1945 when they were a part of Yugoslavia (Selišnik, 2012). This could show the push from Kovač to get rid of the patriarchal mentality of Slovenian society.

            While researching the song itself, I also found that a lot of people noticed that the song has strong influence from her co-writer Hannah Mancini, and was reminiscent of Slovenia’s previous Eurovision song. Some fans also pointed out that the melody of the song was very similar to Cheryl Cole’s “Parachute” that came out the previous year, and some went as far to call it “plagiarism”(Adams, 2017). This could, however, just be the side effect of following a popular pop style melody in her song and not an intentional case of copying. I also believe that the inclusion of verses in the Slovene language and inclusion of the flute and other traditionally, “Slovene” noises make the song differ enough to represent Slovenia.

 

Overall, while Tinkara Kovač’s performane isn’t a strong example of a country representing its national identity and history through song, her song represents Slovenia well in the sense of a traditional Eurovision song. Throughout the song there are many tropes of Eurovision songs such as elements calling to the national flag, singing in her countries language, all while still being a pop(ish) love song. While it would’ve been interesting to see if she related Slovenia’s history (and its relationship to its neighbors) to a relationship, it would have been rather difficult, and this song was an easy and safe song (while some would argue boring) for Slovenia to submit for the song contest.

 

Word count: 1480

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Adams, W. L (2014, April 17). Slovenia: Wiwi Jury reviews Tinkara Kovac with Spet/Round and Round. Wiwibloggs. https://wiwibloggs.com/2014/04/17/slovenia-jury-reviews-tinkara/44575/

 

Baker, C. (2008). Wild Dances and Dying Wolves: Simulation, Essentialization, and National Identity at the Eurovision Song Contest. Popular Communication, Vol. 6 (3), 173-189. https://doi.org/10.1080/15405700802198113

 

Belančić, T. G. (2020, April 30). Symbolism of bonfire in Slovenia. I Feel Slovenia. https://slovenia.si/art-and-cultural-heritage/symbolism-of-bonfire-in-slovenia/

 

Chalkley, E. (2017, May 2). Gimmicks, glitter and glam: Eurovision’s novelty song contest. ESC 

Insight. https://escinsight.com/2017/05/02/eurovision-song-contest-novelty-songs/

 

European Broadcasting Union. (2014, May 03). Tinkara Kovač goes "Round And Round" for Slovenia. Eurovision.tv. https://eurovision.tv/story/tinkara-kovac-goes-round-and-round-for-slovenia

 

Kovač, T. (2014). "Round and Round" (Slovenia). Eurovision Song Contest 2014 Copenhagen. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiwM1sY3u0s

 

POLKAS.NL. (2013. N.d.). A brief history of Slovenian and Cleveland-Style polka music. Polka Music. http://polkahome.com/history~polkamusic.html

 

Rizzi, S. (2021, October 1). Hear the world’s oldest instrument, the 50,000 year old neanderthal flute. Classicfm. https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/flute/worlds-oldest-instrument-neanderthal-flute/

 

Selišnik, I. (2012). The Struggle for Female Suffrage in Europe. Brill.