Televoting Ties: Reciprocity Among Central and Eastern European Countries in the Context of the Eurovision Song Contest
Televoting Ties: Reciprocity Among Central and Eastern European Countries in the Context of the Eurovision Song Contest

Summary/Abstract: Traditionally, research on how and why people vote for acts in the Eurovision Song Contest covers aspects such as geographic proximity, the language of a song, or effects of prior exposure to acts, mostly without discriminating between the popular and the jury vote. To put televoting behaviour in a wider frame, this article investigates televoting patterns among Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) in the Eurovision Song Contest from 2000, 2003–2008, and 2016–2025 through the anthropological lenses of potlatch, gift-giving, and reciprocity to determine whether patterns of mutual support can be interpreted as ritualized solidaristic exchanges. Drawing on quantitative analysis of popular voting data, three hypotheses were tested: If there are long-term “gift alliances” among countries, whether bilateral or generalized reciprocity prevails, or if reciprocity through televoting, regardless of performance quality, prevails. The findings suggest that long-term reciprocal voting relationships are statistically robust. Only a few significant bilateral correlations were observed; instead, a system of centralized reciprocity and selective pooling seems to be favored. Additionally, strong evidence indicates that CEECs often reward each other with high points even when the performance ranks lower overall, pointing to political and cultural biases.

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