“Bangaranga” is the 2026 winner of the popular and much beloved European national song contest Eurovision. It was an unexpected win and has the largest winning margin over the 2nd-place entry in the history of the contest. I read a heated online debate about the merit of the song, and my curiosity was piqued. A YouTube search pulled the final live performance and as the clip began playing, I thought, ‘It’s catchy, makes me move, keeps my attention; it’s exuberant yet it doesn’t reach a deep emotional level; it’s completely self-absorbed, the lyrics repeat: “I”m this,” and “I’m that,” at once thrown at the audience and sucking it in.’ Two descriptions crystallized inside me – thrilling and decadent. We are a culture in decline!
Can a song (or any artistic creation) be a good, quality work of art and express a culture in decline? I think it’s possible, but I don’t know exactly why right now. And I don’t mean the Decadent movement of the 19th c. (Although it is worth reading up on it, since I don’t know much about it other than having read Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil a long time ago.) That movement seems to have intentionally rebelled against the culture it faced, and the public had very mixed reaction to it, many rejecting it.
Instead, in “Bangaranga” I see an artist who expresses current cultural beliefs and moods in an original and skillful production, and audience and critics who genuinely like and embrace this creation.
Yet, the song is exactly what a culture in decline will produce. Why do I think that?
“Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilles and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaeans”
The famous opening lines of The Iliad, considered foundational to our literature. For centuries both high art and folklore sang about gods and superheroes, world events of great consequences and extraordinary deeds. They also sang about regular everyday themes like mother’s love, the beauty of nature, or romantic longing. Sorrowful songs and humorous songs told of peoples’ daily activities, of their desires, of their inspirations, of their reality.
In “Bangaranga” the focus is “I” – the artist, the audience, the participant. Dara, the artist and co-writer, describes the song as a joyful rebellion, an emotional release, a fight against fear and anxiety. Managing emotional problems and disorders is serious, difficult, and consumes a lot of energy. Dara’s response to anxiety is creating a fun and exuberant song with great visual production. Where is the cultural decline then? Artists are the barometers of a culture, they feel tendencies and worldview changes and respond to them with their art. Our culture sings about itself seeking relief from emotional discomfort and instability. What emotional pain must exist in our society as a whole that our artists must sing their (and our) internal demons away!
“I’m a mover for freedom” is one of the most powerful moments in the song. Yet look at the lyrics: “Surrender. … I’m ’bout to lose my mind. … Let me hype you up… I’m gonna leave you shook… Let me light you up… let me pull you in, I’m gonna leave you weak.” Nothing in these words expresses freedom to me. Freedom gives agency, ability; surrender is the opposite of freedom. ‘Losing my mind’ may be a common expression now, but its meaning is also the opposite of freedom, it’s lack of the use of your own faculties. To ‘let’ something happen is to be passive, to not participate but be dominated. Freedom doesn’t leave you weak, freedom gives you boldness and strength. This is another part of the decline I see in our culture – we have disconnected our language and thoughts from the reality of existence. We do and say certain things that we expect would bring certain desired results, yet we keep struggling with the same thing over and over. Surrendering to a hyped up emotional excitement gives a momentarily release from the pressure of fear, but it doesn’t create freedom – the ability to interact with your internal and external reality in a way that leaves you satisfied and undisturbed by external pressure. We have lost the meaning of freedom. If we disconnect ourselves from reality, we shrivel and die like a plant removed from soil. We decline.
I like “Bangaranga.” I think it’s a good song, its Eurovision performance done with exceptional skill and taste. Dara is a talented musician and actress, gifted and hardworking, expressing the world she lives in with the emotional precision of a fine artist. Here is the good news for me – she chose love over fear, she reached for joy and life rather than despair. Does she really know all the meaning in her song? Do I? I don’t. There are contradictions in that song that I’m not sure how to square away at this time, but I do think it’s something both artist and audience should strive to know.
Art and the Invisible 