Eurovision strikes wrong note as last year’s good vibes are drowned out
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After Britain’s success hosting Eurovision on behalf of war-torn Ukraine last year, organisers of the musical jamboree adopted the BBC’s “United by Music” slogan for all future song contests.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said in February that the tagline would “serve as a constant reminder of the contest’s central mission and its unmatched ability to unite people through the universal language of music… The legacy of Liverpool’s good vibes lives on.”
That well-meaning sentiment disintegrated on contact with reality here in Sweden’s third-largest city. The EBU always says that Eurovision is above the fray of politics, even if that has never really been the case. But the political drama at this year’s edition has made it the most controversial since the competition launched in 1956.
Events in Gaza, almost 2,000 miles from Malmö, cast a long shadow all week and tens of thousands of protesters loudly demanded that Israel’s Eden Golan be kicked out of the competition.
The EBU largely weathered that storm, whipped up by the likes of Greta Thunberg, though it lost a lot of credibility among groups such as “Queers for Palestine”, who are fans of both Eurovision and the people of Gaza (but probably ought to examine how Hamas feels about homosexuality).
At the same time, another crisis emerged when the EBU disqualified Joost Klein of the Netherlands after a female member of staff complained about an “incident” after his performance in Thursday’s semi-final. Swedish police are seeking to establish if he broke any laws, but it took the EBU almost 24 hours to ban him.
Things started to become surreal on Thursday night, when Klein, 26, was seated next to Golan, 20, in a tetchy post-semi-final press conference. He was openly hostile to the Israeli as he answered questions wearing a Dutch flag on his head. Other acts publicly expressed their disapproval of Golan’s participation.
Klein was suspended the following day and rumours swirled that it was because of his criticism of Israel, which sparked a further backlash and saw Golan heavily booed on stage.
Unlike many large events, Eurovision is also covered by superfans and bloggers, who are given the same accreditation as, and work alongside, mainstream media outlets.
During Friday’s dress rehearsal, when the Grand Final is first performed as viewers see it on Saturday night, Israel was announced as having won nul points from the European voting public. Cue whoops and cheers from across the media centre, which has been notable for its anti-Israeli feeling. Two brave journalists defiantly wore the Star of David in one corner.
Things got weirder when, on Friday night, Italian contestant Angelina Mango walked into the media centre unannounced and sang John Lennon’s “Imagine” in what was a transparent call for détente.
Politics has long been a part of Eurovision, from years of needle between Russia and Ukraine to tactical voting based on geography (the Baltic and Scandinavian countries all voting for each other, say) and Britain coming dead last in the first post-Brexit contest in 2021.
But after Malmö, the EBU may be searching for a new slogan.
