Performing Europeanization: The Case of the Post-Yugoslav Countries
Performing Europeanization: The Case of the Post-Yugoslav Countries

Summary/Abstract: The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is not merely a normative platform for the projection of Western soft power, but also a stage on which (trans)national identity formation can play out. This article examines how two post-Yugoslav Southeastern European states, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia, have used their ESC entries since 1992 to articulate divergent strategies of Europeanization. Drawing on scholarship on Balkanism, nation-state branding, and the politics of aesthetics, this paper analyses Bosnia-Herzegovina’s 1993 debut entry Sva bol svijeta by Fazla, staged amid the siege of Sarajevo, alongside Serbia’s 2022 entry In Corpore Sano by Konstrakta, which reappropriates Orthodox religious imagery to critique the commercialization of self-care. Through close readings of performance, lyrics, and staging, this paper argues that while the ESC presents itself as apolitical, its nation-state-based structure makes it a potent platform for performing national identity. It concludes that Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia illustrate distinct artistic strategies—dissentient protest and critical reappropriation, respectively—through which post-Yugoslav states have contested and reshaped normative expectations of European belonging on the Eurovision stage.

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