Lithuania: National Branding vs. National Identity

History: Formation of Lithuanian National Identity

Throughout Lithuania’s timeline, the country has struggled in forming a national identity of their own to express and represent themselves to other countries. In the 13^th century, Mindaugas conquered neighboring lands and united the people of the Baltic tribes, which later established the first Lithuanian statehood. As Lithuania continued to expand its territory, further development of the statehood was formed because of the introduction of “…the Church Slavonic liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Christian religion, a written language (Chancery Slavonic)…and a system of laws,” (Bater, 2017). Years later, after gaining his title in 1377, Grand Duke Jogaila married to the Polish Queen Jadwiga, thus forming an alliance with the neighboring country. As a result, this alliance formed a new state known as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which consisted of the hierarchy of both states and was ruled by Polish and Lithuanian nobility. As time went by, Polish influence was increasingly affecting all aspects of Lithuanian public life. However, their Slavonic language was still in use even after Lithuanian nobility became Polonized. This shows how Lithuanian national identity is being expressed by upholding the native language. As time progressed, untimely events caused the Partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was the result of the division among the statehood because of plagues, famine, and civil wars, thus losing a lot of territory and power, and ultimately falling under the rule of Imperial Russia (1795-1915), and later to German occupation (1915-1918).

Under Imperial Russian rule, Lithuanian language was banned throughout schools and public discourse, it was prohibited to be written or printed in literature, and the native language was not acknowledged as a prestigious language. Refusing to succumb to the Russian policy, a nationalist movement was formed to upkeep Lithuania’s national identity by establishing a Lithuanian state based on ethnic identity and language that would be independent of the Russian Empire, Poland, and the German Empire (Augustinas, 2016). Unfortunately, this restoration of the statehood was short-lived when World War II began.

Falling first under Russian occupation, then Nazi Germany, and again by Soviet Russia, Lithuania finally gained independence as of March 11, 1990; however, it was not recognized by Russia until September 1991. Wanting to formally escape from Soviet Union government and administration, in 2004, Lithuania joined the European Union (EU), “promoting greater social political, and economic harmony among nations of Western Europe,” (google.com), and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), “a formal alliance between the territories of North American and Europe…to defend each other from the possibility of communist Soviet Union taking control of their nation,” (Lake, 2008). By this action alone, it shows how Lithuania is wanting to change their ideals and culture to be more Westernized – to adopt or be influenced by the cultural, economic, or political systems of the West – and moving away from Eastern European culture.

Lithuania: Eurovision Performances and Nation Branding

            What is Nation Branding? Nation Branding has several possible definitions; however, Paul Jordan defines nation branding as “the phenomenon by which governments engage in self-conscious activities aimed at producing a certain image of the nation state,” (Bolin and Stahlberg 2010, 82). It is a conscious effort of a country wanting to promote and highlight the significant aspects of said country in a particular way through “marketing, branding and business literature,” and an “increasing attention is being paid to the phenomenon in other fields such as cultural sociology, media studies, public relations, public administration, and political geography,” (Dinnie, 3). In relation to Eurovisionl, when songs are chosen, however a country selects their song – a national competition, popular vote, or a higher authority intervenes – one might think, “How might the country want to project themselves out into a bigger audience?” In Lithuania’s perspective, the country does not make a definite, conscious effort in expressing themselves in a certain light to make themselves different from the rest of the other European countries. However, from their recent performances in the last five years, Lithuania has been sending a message of not only the theme of love, but, in a subtle manner, been expressing their efforts in pushing away the Eastern European ideals towards the culture of those of Western Europe.

Before getting into Lithuania’s performances, let’s differentiate between Eastern and Western Europe. Eastern Europe was consisted of countries that once belonged to that of the Soviet Union, whereas Western Europe leaned towards the ideals of modernization and the individualistic lifestyles among its people (Pabriks, 2015). Now, looking at the performances, one would not be able to distinguish Lithuania’s intent at first glance. Besides performing songs about love and finding romance, taking a closer look behind the scenes of the songs, Eurovision entry artist Donny Montell performed songs created by Western European producers. Looking at Lithuania’s song choice, in 2012, “Love is Blind” is written and produced by German composers Brandon Stone and Jodie Rose (Eurovision.tv); and, in 2016, “I’ve Been Waiting for this Night” is written by Swedish composers Jonas Thander and Beatrice Robertsson (Eurovision.tv). Though Montell is the only singer to perform songs produced by Western European countries, this can be interpreted in a way that indistinctly integrates the ideas of Western culture and incorporating these notions into expressing Lithuania’s views in trying to move away from Eastern European culture. As for the other performances, the 2013 through 2015 entries were all written by Lithuanian composers (Eurovision.tv), and even one entry was written by the performer himself. Certainly, all the performers still follow the theme of love. This can be represented in a way that not only shows the significant continuation to be consistent with their message of love, but sheds a light to the transparencies of love, such as acceptance, happiness, and hope. This proves to show that Lithuania’s performances are leaning towards that of “gain[ing] a better understanding of the effects of transnational modernity on Lithuanian national identity at the present post-Soviet juncture of transitioning to the West,” (Lankauskas, 339), and is moving away from the Eastern European culture to embrace and express a modified culture of that of the Western European countries.

Lithuania’s Views of Eurovision and its Attitudes towards Nation Branding

            Taking into consideration of the recent Eurovision Song Contest entries, from interviews of that year’s post-Eurovision, the Lithuanian artists are, in general, truly proud and show pride in being able to represent their home country during Europe’s biggest, televised event. However, that is simply the surface meaning that any one person can see and understand what is being represented during their three minute performance. As explained previously, the performers representing Lithuania have been expressing the country’s efforts to branch out and move away from their past: turning away from Soviet Russia. Now, in current relations, Lithuania has indicated and exhibited negative attitudes toward communist Russia (Bater, 2016). To support this case, in 2014, Vilija Matačiūnaitė’s song, “Attention,” could possibly hint at the idea that Lithuania is going against the Russian legislation which, recently, has been leaning towards a patriarchal system or government similar to what the society was in the past. Overall, Lithuania’s views of Eurovision are to especially show their gratitude to be performing on the Eurovision stage, and how proud that these artists are able to represent their native country. As for nation branding, the only thing Lithuania is expressing in their performances at Eurovision is their national identity – solely based on the fact that they are Lithuanian – and that their culture is branching out and adopting more of a Western culture than compared to their past.

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