First Of All, What Were These Interval Acts?
Standing Out In That crowd!
“And the interval act is your one big chance, to fail to live up to Riverdance”
Petra Mede (Host of Eurovision 2013 & 2016)
The “interval act”, the “toilet break”, the “‘you did remember to vote for Georgia?’ moment”…. all ubiquitous events at Eurovision and possibly all one and the same! After the mad rush of up to 27 songs vying for your vote, the interval act is finally the moment for the hosting nation to take over and calm us all down. At the very least it is the moment to put the kettle on and calm ourselves down for some nail-biting voting! Of course, for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) the last thing they want is for viewers to flip the channel between the show and the results, so they need something to step in and keep up viewer engagement. Like all things in life though its needless to say some interval acts serve their function better than others.
What Makes A Good Interval?
A subjective question of course, but you would be staggered at the uniformity in answers if you expected any survey to be completely random! Be that due to quality or quantity of advertisements, I have heard far more people talk about Riverdance than I have of any of the singers in Portugal’s Grand Final interval. There are simply interval acts which stand out more in people’s memory than others. A good interval act has to be unique, it follows up a massive production and is following in the footsteps of many previous interval acts. Indeed my list above isn’t exactly exhaustive as many countries include opening acts to their shows or scattered in additional winner’s performances. These days all three Eurovision shows will have at least one interval act and it is unlikely all three will be spoken about after the contest all that much. Basically in a world already competing for our time, the interval act has to stand out and keep us glued to our TV screens.
Standing Out… Infamously?
Whilst its good to stand out… let’s just say we have had one or two controversies regarding Eurovision interval acts. Be that Aqua swearing (albeit likely after any watershed in most countries) or Madonna (or even the reigning winner) singing somewhat out of key, interval acts have drummed up a fair bit of unwanted controversy for the host broadcasters and EBU over the years. Is this a good thing? Well maybe as far as keeping people hooked to their TV screens for the few more minutes before the show gets more exciting again, it can be a useful thing but it is less than ideal. No one wants the hassle of having to put out a media apology, having to explain their (questionable?) decisions or have their show forgotten about after the event due to a more viral drama . It just isn’t great for marketing purposes. Controversially though, I’d probably rather have that then the same old stale interval every year. Why? Because any publicity is better than a forgettable aspect to the show and (arguably) the best interval acts have found themselves upstaging the show anyway.
A Little Bit of TLC
Staleness is just one of the things with interval acts, there is only so much you can do in the just under 10 minute slot they are normally allocated and well there’s nothing new under the sun! Sure, there are umpteen different music genres the producers can draw from (and maybe even add a dance routine in for good measure) but in a contest as diverse and full of music as Eurovision it can be hard to find an act that doesn’t feel like it was just your second preference to be your Eurovision contestant. So what can you do? Well of course you can look internationally to Australia say or I don’t know pay for a famous American singer like Madonna to perform, but ultimately you lose that connection with the host country’s culture and the whole thing can still go up in smoke! Another option is to just bring back your winner or previous contestants but the more countries which do that of course, the less special an occasion it feels.
My conclusion is when planning an interval act, the thing that will make or break it is that little bit of extra thought and care. Your concept has been done to death? No problem, just find a unique flair to do it in! Sure there may have been a million other ballet numbers at Eurovision but no one else has quite made their host do so much work as Germany did in 1983 and that interval lives rent free in my mind as a result! Whilst it is unfortunately very easy to make a “clone” interval act, the one’s that put in their own personalised flair, are the ones I think of most fondly. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone there! Right?
Deeper Meaning
But why should the host care? After all as long as most people don’t tune off the interval isn’t that important? Well, the interval act is probably the part of the show where the host has the most creative freedom to present their country to the world. When have you have spent all those extra euros for the supposed “honour” of hosting the least you can get back in return is a boost to tourism or having more members of the public be able to locate you on a map! Some of the more memorable interval acts have infused elements of their countries cultural heritage into the show, in ways which really show their countries off as unique and interesting to the world. Hosting has also been used over the years to present countries as having a modern outlook or having a desire to integrate with Europe.
Why show all these images of your country off? Why overlay the images with suspiciously EU looking stars? Why portray individuals in society who are often neglected by the media in your presentation? Why show-off modern infrastructure and technology? Why bring out your biggest stars if they won’t actually compete in the contest? And why feel the need to show the world you can poke fun at yourself? Because this is your moment in the spotlight and you might as well make the most of it to promote your country and its culture!
A Celebration of Us
Interval acts come and interval acts go but they reflect the societies and times in which they were created. Most contests probably won’t be remembered or judged on their interval acts and this in many ways is unsurprising as they make up such a small fragment of the show. But the emphasis of these performances and the reasons they were chosen instead of anything else to celebrate a particular group of people in a particular time, is a fascinating aspect of any contest. Even if their main purpose is to fill in time between votes, interval acts have become a fundamental component of the Eurovision formula. Whether you choose to/need to relieve yourself or not during them will be up to you but whether or not they play a major role in influencing and reflecting society is another matter altogether!
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