Eurovision Is Never Just a Song Contest
Boycotts, soft power, and sequined bodysuits - the definitive guide to Eurovision 2026 with two of Luxembourg's sharpest voices
If you think Eurovision is nothing more than glitter, key changes, and strategic voting between neighbours, think again. Seventy years in, Europe's biggest song contest continues to be fun alongside the loaded messaging and controversy. Five countries are boycotting. The bookies are watching Finland. And Luxembourg's own Eva Marija is about to take a violin to the stage in Vienna and remind the world exactly why this small country has returned.
This week, on The Lisa Burke Show, we sat down with two guests who between them know Eurovision inside out: Dr. Dean Vuletic, the world's leading academic authority on the history of the Eurovision Song Contest and author of the definitive book on its political and cultural significance; and Sarah Tapp, RTL Today presenter, music business production student at Berklee College of Music, and the voice behind RTL's Eurovision commentary for the last two years. In this conversation we talk about contest and about what it tells us about the world we're living in right now.
