Quand Mère Teresa et la Vierge Marie chantent pour l’Ukraine. La participation d’alyona alyona et Jerry Heil à l’Eurovision 2024 : un instrument de diplomatie culturelle ordinaire

Abstract

This article examines Ukraine’s participation in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest as an instrument of ordinary cultural diplomacy, in a context of protracted war with Russia, and declining media visibility, further exacerbated by other conflicts, particularly Israel’s war with Hamas. The study focuses on the performance by alyona alyona and Jerry Heil, selected to represent Ukraine with their song Teresa & Maria. Through an analysis of the Vidbir (national selection), the interplay between aesthetic and political registers in the lyrics and staging, and the communication strategies employed by Ukrainian institutions around the contest –in close coordination with the artists– the article demonstrates how Eurovision, despite its officially apolitical stance, is mobilised by the Ukrainian state to serve its foreign policy objectives by addressing not decision-makers, but audiences distant from traditional diplomatic channels. This study aims to shed light on a contest often dismissed as mere entertainment, and to contribute to research on the contemporary uses of cultural diplomacy by introducing the concept of “ordinary diplomacy” as a framework for better understanding these dynamics.