"The Eurovision Song Contest defines itself as apolitical, but what the Eurovision Song Contest is not is asocial".

To talk about the geostrategic role of Eurovision, the Comillas Cast podcast "The world is crazy, crazy, crazy" has invited Antonio Obregón, professor at Comillas ICADE and expert on Eurovision*, for its fourth episode. The festival, which was born in 1956, a year before the Treaty of Rome in which the European Economic Community was established, has been acquiring increasing importance over time.

Obregón, in this episode, affirms that the relevance of the festival is very significant, attributing to it the capacity to be an "instrument of cultural diplomacy" and to have become "a tool with which states can convey certain messages". "The festival is a cultural manifestation of the first order, insofar as, through it, we get to know the customs, interests, concerns and evolution of a country's society", Obregón affirms.

In this interview, the professor also mentions some of the moments that have generated the most controversy. And there are many. In spite of this, the Eurovision Song Contest has grown in popularity to become a major European cultural event and is followed by powerful sectors such as young people.

Listen to it here.

*Antonio Obregón, as well as lecturer in Criminal Law at Comillas ICADE, is coordinator of the seminar "Eurovision and European construction", and co-author of the book "The Eurovision Song Contest as a Cultural Phenomenon: From Concert Halls to the Halls of Academia".