Switzerland wins the 68th Eurovision Song Contest with The Code by Nemo. Photo by Alma Bengtsson / EBU
By Sarah Kramer
Year after year, Eurovision makes headlines across the globe. This year was no exception as the annual competition was especially dramatic. Due to the continuing conflict between Israel and Palestine, viewers and performers both had loads to say about Israel being represented in the contest by singer Eden Golan.
Eurovision has just completed its 68th annual singing competition, and it’s known to bring together people across Europe and create massive stars like Céline Dion and ABBA. The contest was held in the Malmö Arena in Sweden, with 37 participants and 25 headed to the finals. This year, the contest produced many new popular faces, but for a different reason than usual.
The inclusion of Israel and the ban on any images of support for Palestine during the show fueled outrage among fans and competitors. Following the outrage of this news, the European Broadcasting Union announced: “The Eurovision Song Contest is a competition for public service broadcasters from across Europe and the Middle East. It is a competition for broadcasters – not governments – and the Israeli public broadcaster has participated in the contest for 50 years.”
Eden Golan, a 20-year-old singer, represented Israel and received a very mixed reaction during her dress rehearsal performance of her song ‘Hurricane’, which initially was titled ‘October Rain’ which caused speculation in reference to the attacks on Israel on October 7th, 2023.
The EBU also makes it evident that they want the competition to continue to be non-political, and the banning of Israel from competing would be a political decision. Amelia Collins, 18, a student from Surrey says: “It’s disappointing to see that they included Israel, I watch the contest every year, this year it just didn’t feel right.”
Fans of the sensational contest noticed the double standard allowing Israel to compete when Russia was banned by the EBU after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Collins says: “If one country is going to be banned, that should set a standard for all competitors.”
Eurovision added in their previous statement addressing the public outroar: “The Eurovision Song Contest remains a non-political event that unites audiences worldwide through music.” Many people have expressed their distaste for the seemingly hypocritical nature of the broadcasting union, especially Twitter and TikTok users.
Of all the moments through the show’s history, a particular press conference exchange between Israel’s Eden Golan and the Netherlands’s Joost Klein went viral across multiple social media platforms. During the conference, Golan was asked by a Polish Journalist: “Have you ever thought by that being here, you bring risk and danger to the other participants and public?”
Golan was told it wasn’t necessary for her to answer, Joost Klein can be heard asking: “Why not?”
This interaction among others during the press conference gave an inside look to the tension that happens behind the scenes. Niamh Doyle, 22, said: “I’ve seen clips of the press conference, I feel bad for her but at the same time she should have been prepared to answer questions like that.”
Other notable moments during the press conference such as Greece’s Marina Satti pretending to be asleep while Golan spoke, and Bambie Thug, representing Ireland announcing that they were told they must change their body paint, which translated to ‘Ceasefire and Freedom’.
The self-proclaimed ‘Ouiji Pop’ artist, 31, said at the semi-final press conference: “It was very important for me because I’m pro-justice and pro-peace. Unfortunately, I had to change those messages today to ‘crown the witch’.”
All of this wild drama led to an even crazier turn of events when Joost Klein – who was one of the most likely to win the whole competition – was disqualified. Doyle said: “I liked watching Joost perform, I didn’t look into what happened to get him disqualified but it’s disappointing.”
Netherland’s disqualification from the competition brought more uproar from the audience and made some fans start wondering why. The EBU released a statement on May 11th about Klein’s disqualification, stating the reason: “The Dutch artist Joost Klein was disqualified from the Grand Final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest following threatening behaviour directed at a female member of the production crew. Swedish police have investigated the offence, and the case will soon be handed over to the prosecutor in an accelerated procedure.”
Fans continue to support Klein, him becoming the most followed Instagram of all the original finalists, as of May 14th, as well as endless tweets and videos of support. He has a possibility of continuing his career with great success from Eurovision despite his disqualification.
The controversy of the event doesn’t end there. During the finals a protest was held outside by a pro-Palestine group, Stop Israel. Greta Thunberg was notably in attendance outside of the Malmö Arena until Swedish police eventually removed her and other protestors.
Thunberg told The Independent: “The world cannot remain silent in a genocide. Everyone who can must use their voice and speak up against Israel’s crimes and occupation.”
Prior to the finals when Nemo, who represents Switzerland, won with their performance of ‘The Code’, the competing finalists each had press conferences. Bambie Thug notably wears a Palestinian Keffiyeh during their interview with the Éirevision Podcast, where they were asked by a reporter how they reacted to Israel being a part of Eurovision’s Grand Final.
“I cried with my team,” said Bambie Thug, the conference moved on to the next question when Ireland’s representative was visibly upset. Prior to this question, they said felt a heavy energy following rehearsal, Collins said: “Bambie Thug was my favourite performer this year, I watched interviews from after the contest and it was really sad to see how poorly they were treated.”
After Switzerland’s win, singer Nemo had a press conference which brought all of the controversy full circle. Nemo was the first non-binary person to win Eurovision so far, their song, ‘The Code’ which they performed at the final is about them accepting themselves as non-binary individual.
Following their victory, Nemo brought up how fans were not allowed to bring their non-binary flags into the Arena, even they had to sneak theirs in. They said to reporters at the conference: “I had to smuggle my flag in because Eurovision said no, but I did it anyway, so I hope some people did that too.”
“The people behind Eurovision showed their true colours this year, and it wasn’t pretty at all,” said Doyle.
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