Boos, tears, sweat and toil: experiencing the 2015 Eurovision song contest live

In this article we consider the live experience of the dual audiences of the Eurovision Song Contest, recently awarded the title of the world's longest running annual music competition. The Contest commands an audience of some two million each year for its broadcast, but there is also a small live audience of between 10 000 and 30 000 spectators. Following recent theoretical debates on liveness, we argue that both audiences can be understood as experiencing the Contest live: despite their lack of spatial co-presence, the temporal connection established by the live broadcast allows both experiences to be understood as live. This argument is supported by thick descriptions gathered on-the-ground (or on-the-dance-floor) at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. Chris Hay is an Honorary Associate of the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Sydney, where his teaching and research covers dramaturgy and the history of theatre. He is currently working on a research project examining the spatial dramaturgy of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. Billy Kanafani is the Head of Drama and Film at Canberra Grammar School. His research interests include intracultural performing and casting, as well as boys' education.