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Hamster Wheels, Sequins and, Yes, a Lot of Singing

The singer Mariya Yaremchuk of Ukraine during the dress rehearsal for the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest.Credit...Tobias Schwarz/Reuters

COPENHAGEN — The crowd of roughly 10,000 fans cheered, and the lights glowed electric blue as a woman in a bright white gown introduced the next act in the giant auditorium here. “Please give it up now for Albania!” she shouted.

It’s not a line you normally hear on prime-time television. Except this week, which features the 59th annual Eurovision Song Contest — about the trashiest, splashiest event on the global pop calendar. On Saturday an estimated 120 million viewers from Iceland to Azerbaijan, more than watched this year’s Super Bowl, are expected to tune in to see which of the 26 finalists will take the top slot and the exposure it provides.  

“It’s ‘American Idol’ on steroids,” said William Lee Adams, a journalist in London who founded Wiwi Bloggs, a leading independent site devoted entirely to Eurovision.

A place where soft power meets soft porn, Eurovision offers a view of Europe in microcosm, particularly now, when old fault lines from the Balkans to Russia and Ukraine are surfacing. The competition, which takes place on three nights, is highly political, albeit flavored with a hefty dose of camp.

Over the years, Eurovision has reflected Europe’s social and political changes, and this one is no exception. Along with the requisite scantily clad women and hunky men, an Austrian drag performer, Conchita Wurst, advanced to this year’s finals, to the consternation of Eastern European social conservatives who have called Eurovision the epitome of the morally corrupt West.

There’s also intense speculation about whether tensions between Russia and Ukraine could split the post-Soviet voting bloc. At Tuesday’s semifinals, the audience booed when it was announced that Russia’s contestants, the wholesome-looking twin Tolmachevy sisters, made the finals.

Mariya Yaremchuk of Ukraine also placed, with her cheery pop song “Tick Tock,” which she sang while a man ran in a giant hamster wheel on stage. Crimea, now annexed by Russia, will still vote as part of Ukraine, which still runs the state broadcaster and the cellphone networks. Eurovision officials say they will monitor to make sure the phone lines aren’t obstructed.

The winner is picked by a mix of votes from viewers calling in and from five-member juries from each of the 37 countries that entered the semifinals this year. Voters cannot vote for their own country, so just as in Brussels, the European Union headquarters, there is a drive for consensus and also rampant bloc voting in which like-minded countries band together to support their favorites.

Balkan countries tend to vote for one another, as do Scandinavian ones. Greece never supports its rival neighbor Macedonia, known internationally as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.  

“If this were football, there would be riots,” said Glen Bryan, 51, a veteran fan who has been attending the competition for years.   He said he had moved to Sweden from Britain out of love for Abba, who won Eurovision in 1974.

Eurovision began in 1956, inspired by Italy’s annual Sanremo song contest. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Yugoslavia, dozens more countries joined, and taking part became a sign of making it into Europe.

After a rule change in 2009, half of the votes have come from viewers calling, and half from juries chosen by each national broadcaster. Turkey has sat out Eurovision since 2013 to protest this change, which diluted the power of the Turkish diaspora vote.

After allegations that oil-rich Azerbaijan was trying to buy votes, this year, for the first time, the members of the national juries have been announced publicly. All are music industry professionals with no ties to the participating acts. After the finals, their votes will be made public, to ensure “transparency,” said Jarmo Siim, a Eurovision spokesman.

Like cricket outside the Commonwealth or bidets outside the Continent, Eurovision doesn’t always translate to those outside Europe, but here it’s serious business. London bookmakers have placed the best odds on the glamorous Swedish pop singer Sanna Nielsen and the second-best on Conchita Wurst. But experts say the contest is wide open. Will Aram Mp3 of Armenia beat the folksy duo the Common Linnets, from the Netherlands, and Andras Kallay-Saunders of Hungary, who is half African-American (in a country wary of immigrants), and his dark ballad about child abuse?

Most contestants sing in English, and the contest reflects the near global saturation of trends in American pop and R&B, but some still choose to sing in their native languages. One of the few this year was Sergej Cetkovic, who became the first finalist ever from Montenegro.

Mr. Cetkovic, 38, said he had been encouraged to perform in English to reach a broader audience, but decided against it. “I think we need to keep our cultural heritage — that’s why I think it’s important to sing in my mother tongue,” he said, adding: “We’re a new country. People have to know we exist.” How contestants are chosen varies by country. Sweden, with its consensus-driven politics and a budget for public concerts, holds a three-month-long nationwide contest, which Ms. Nielsen won. Belarus’s national broadcaster once overruled a popular vote and switched candidates.

Participants from the host country, as well as from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain, jump directly to the finals on Saturday because their national broadcasters contribute the most money to Eurovision. Past participants — Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Serbia — are sitting out this edition for lack of funds.

Both live on TV and streamed live on the Eurovision site, the contest draws a huge audience. Last year the semifinals and finals broadcasts combined drew 180 million viewers on the various national broadcasters, Mr. Siim said, compared with an average of 21.4 million viewers who watched the Sochi Games on NBC in prime time. In some smaller countries, like Malta and Iceland, the contest can draw up to 90 percent of the viewing audience, he added.  

While the winners get only a glass trophy, and no cash prize, winning is an almost instant guarantee of global exposure. After the Swedish pop star Loreen won in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2012 with “Euphoria,” that single sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide and was No. 1 on iTunes in 13 countries, Warner Music Sweden said.

Sales are harder to track in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, where piracy is rampant. Still, simply participating can give singers from small countries a boost. Cristina Scarlat, 33, who represented Moldova this year but didn’t make the finals, said Eurovision was the biggest audience of her career. Back home, she mostly performs live, even at weddings. “Yes, of course, it’s our business in Moldova,” she said.

A correction was made on 
May 9, 2014

An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to a song contest in Italy. It is the Sanremo song contest, not San Remo.

A correction was made on 
May 13, 2014

An article on Saturday about the Eurovision Song Contest referred incorrectly to the Austrian contestant, Conchita Wurst, the eventual winner. That is the persona adopted by Thomas Neuwirth, who performs in drag. Conchita Wurst is not a transgender singer.

How we handle corrections

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Hamster Wheels, Sequins and, Yes, a Lot of Singing. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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