Paul David Flood

A title slide that says "Race, Genre, and the Uncertainties of Representation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Paul David Flood, Ph.D. Candidate in Musicology, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. Roberts Wesleyan University, October 6, 2025.

Spent my morning with some excellent students at Roberts Wesleyan University! I gave a guest lecture on one of my diss chapters, and the students were eager to critique notions of representation, sameness, and "world music." Thanks to my brilliant colleague Dr. Eleanor Price for the invite.

XXL walked so Jemini could…run?

Here we are

My article “’Everybody Wanna Move Like Us!’: Performing Afro-Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest” has just been published in the September 2025 issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies! online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article...

Emma Watson as a young Hermione Granger posing with her hands on her hips. Text, overlayed in rainbow font, says "omg a hit tweet"

sorry can’t hear you I’m a s c e n d i n g

I finished writing the last remaining chapter of my dissertation this afternoon 🥲

Promotional poster for “Palestrina at 500” by Voices, a professional choir in Rochester, NY conducted by William Weinert.

Roc and Buf folks: Come celebrate Palestrina’s 500th with Voices this weekend AND at NY ACDA next month! Also feat. Bach, Brahms, Bruckner, Pearsall, Poulenc, and Witt.

Friday Sep. 26 at Holy Trinity in Buffalo, 7pm.
Sunday Sep. 28 at Incarnate Word in Rochester, 4pm.
Friday Oct. 17 at NY ACDA.

Another great way to mark the Eurovision new year is to start writing an abstract for a fabulous conference to be held in Paris next year.

Proposal submission deadline: 15 October 2025

See website for more details: encore-network.org

#Eurovision #cfp #AcademicSky

📢 Call for Proposals

CES is pleased to invite submissions for its 32nd International Conference of Europeanists, to be held in Dublin, June 16–18, 2025.

For more information about the Conference Theme and how to apply visit: councilforeuropeanstudies.org/conferences/...

A photo of Alejandrina M. Medina, Morgan Bates, and Paul David Flood standing and smiling together at Morgan’s wedding.

Music studies besties! Celebrating our dear friend @queertrumpeter.bsky.social’s wedding this evening 🥹🥲💖 @alejandrinammedina.bsky.social

Me with my hand on my chin as I chair the “Export Music and Non-Domestic Style” panel at the 2025 IASPM-US and Pop Conference joint meeting in Los Angeles, California in March 2025.

Googling yourself is wild because apparently you’ll find photos of yourself that you didn’t even know existed! Here’s me chairing a panel at IASPM-US/PopCon 2025 in LA this past March. Thank god my thinking/listening face lowkey serves.

(📸 Joe Mabel)

PAUL DAVID FLOOD Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester "Everybody Wanna Move Like Us!" Performing Afro-Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest ABSTRACT From 2019 through 2021, the Swedish public elected three consecutive Afro-Swedish artists with gospel songs to represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest: John Lundvik with his song "Too Late For Love"; The Mamas with their song "Move"; and Tusse with his song "Voices." While these globally mediated representations of Afro-Sweden reflected both the increasing popularity of gospel music in Sweden and the nation's multiracial landscape, they also mirrored an ongoing cultural resistance movement against the rise of assimilationist, anti-migrant, and colorblind politics in Sweden. Through musical analysis, fan and critical reception, and accounts from the artists themselves, this article examines how these artists drew from Black American musical styles and aesthetics, specifically gospel music, in their attempts to represent Afro-Swedishness while ultimately serving Sweden's colorblind agenda. These three artists' consecutive performances in the contest can indeed be understood as meaningful specters of representation that ostensibly resist assimilationist racial politics in Sweden. However, their participation on behalf of a nation that continually marginalizes them, based on centuries-old constructs of Swedish white supremacy, placed the political meaning of their participation into question. The author interrogates the longstanding expectation that Eurovision songs by Black artists must adhere to palatable modes of sonic Blackness in order to achieve success. This article thus reveals that while these Afro-Swedish artists were indeed representatives of a progressive and multicultural Swedish people, they inadvertently served an increasingly conservative state's soft power play amid a moment of reckoning with the nation's racial

Proofs are in! Catch my article on Afro-Swedishness in/and Eurovision in next month’s issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies.

If you’re prepping a syllabus on popular music, European culture and politics, Black transnationalisms, or something related, please consider assigning this!

ALoRoWaHAiBA Abbreviated List of Resources on Why and How AI is Bad, Actually Worsening Climate Change, Pollution, Environmental Racism, and Associated Negative Health Consequences On the pollution and health con...

Academic pals: I'm starting a shared doc to collect info on exactly why/how AI is indefensible—specifically in humanities classrooms, but also across the board. Please share/add as you see fit. I plan to lecture from this in the first week; many students don't know.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

I got it years ago (like 2017) so I’m not sure if the initial process has changed, but I remember it being pretty easy so long as you can make it to a nearby int’l airport for the interview (which iirc was also quick and easy, at least for someone who looks like I do). Definitely worth it imo.

North Macedonia’s response to the Spice Girls in Eurovision 2000 was iconic—for all the wrong reasons. Nevertheless, this hit platinum in my household.

100% getting referenced in the conclusion of my diss idc idc

YouTube video by Ziwe JINKX MONSOON IS AN ICONIC GUEST | ZIWE INTERVIEW

Things I was not prepared for: Jinkx Monsoon referencing Eurovision and singing Silvia Night's "Congratulations" (Iceland '06) in her Ziwe interview.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrLw...

I think that as a society we need more songs with ill-advised key changes

Absolutely gutted that I'll have to miss this one, especially given this great theme!

IASPM-US is one of my cherished academic homes. Consider submitting an abstract!

I was just thinking how the crash out over Mamdani’s win is establishment types and institutions confronting the fact that he didn’t need them, and how those same types really neatly overlap with the one demanding we throw trans people under the bus

It was great to meet you on Wednesday, Eamonn! Thank you for all of your labor toward putting this wonderful conference together. This was my first CES conference and I'm looking forward to attending again in the future!

Proportionally, the estimated 100-200k Pride marchers in Budapest today would correspond to something approaching 1m in London or New York. And this in a country that has now spent 15 years under illiberal, authoritarian rule.

What a symbol of hope.

A graphic from the Eastman Musicology department advertising Paul’s paper at the Council for European Studies conference this week: “Crying at the EuroClub: Rainbow Europe, Queer Diasporas, and the Politics of Escapism at the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest,” Wednesday, June 25 at 11am at Temple University.

Tomorrow morning at #CES25 in Philly!

Very much looking forward to:
- #CES2025
- Philly, one of my favorite cities in the US

Not looking forward to:
- ~100ºF in a big city

A selfie of me outside with a fresh haircut

I may be losing my mind trying to finish my dissertation but I just got a haircut so at least I’m cute

Meliora baybeeee

The Journal of Popular Music Studies is looking to fill three roles! Details below:
iaspm-us.wildapricot.org/Calls-and-An...