The Eurovision Song Contest and its political hue |
At next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, Israel will perform. The attempt to block the country from participating failed, as the EBU refused to hold a vote on Israel’s entry. It led to an immediate response. Four national broadcasters decided to boycott the next edition, among them one from the country where I live. The EBU has tried very hard to keep the apolitical nature of the event sacred. However, I would like to venture another viewpoint: it has always been political.
AVROTROS, the Dutch public broadcaster, decided to issue an official statement almost immediately. It claimed that the decision had not been taken lightly, but they could not participate next year, due to Israel’s inclusion. Culture should connect people, but it was quick to point out that inclusion did not come at all costs. It accused Israel of a number of issues and considered the fragile ceasefire insufficient. The language was polished, the message carefully constructed. It added that it had spoken to the Israeli ambassador, yet the decision had already been made: Israel needed to be excluded. No attempt to cover that up will succeed.
The EBU has decided to implement reforms. While it did succeed in keeping Israel on board, the new rules go a long way to satisfy the boycotting countries. Votes per person will be cut in half, government-funded PR campaigns for contestants will be discouraged, and the jury will now account for 50 percent of a country’s vote in the semifinals. Considering that the juries scored both Eden Golan and Yuval Raphael rather poorly in 2024 and 2025, respectively, it spells difficulty for Israel. It will be much harder to reach the final in the future. And yet, it was not enough. AVROTROS requested a secret vote on Israel’s participation, but the EBU rejected the demand and the reform vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the new rules; Israel could remain. Refusing to accept the results, which showed that the majority of broadcasters had not moved to their camp, shows a reluctance to accept defeat. Instead, Spain, Slovenia, Ireland, and the Netherlands – Iceland has joined the club and domestic pressure on Italy to join the boycott is mounting as well – decided to formally boycott next year’s contest.
Well, not quite. AVROTROS will hand over the broadcasting rights to another public broadcaster – yes, the Netherlands has an unnecessary multitude of them. However, no Dutch candidate will grace the stage next year. It has led to frustration among the Dutch public. Many Eurovision fans are happy that the decision was made. In their minds, AVROTROS made the right decision. In addition, there is some resentment over the 2023 disqualification of Joost Klijn. That was considered outrageous and unnecessary. To........