Austria has won Eurovision 2025 in Basel, Switzerland. This year’s contest was supposed to bring excitement and joy across the continent, however the chaos of last year’s contest still loomed, prompted by the participation of Israel.
Eurovision was birthed in the aftermath of World War 2 in 1956, to promote peace and build bridges in a volatile European landscape through song and dance. But recently, it has been drawn into controversy over Israel’s continuing participation in the contest.
Following the killing of over 60,000 people in Palestine – of which Israel has admitted that 80% are civilians – by Israel’s so-called ‘Defence Force’, there has been a widespread campaign to bar the country from participating in Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), much like the exclusion of Russia and Belarus for their ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Many, including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, believe that there should not be double standards for Israel.
Israel’s harmful role in Eurovision
Last year’s ESC in Malmö, Sweden was marred by controversy as the Israeli delegation harassed other delegations, while the European Broadcast Union (EBU) muted the live audience and disqualified contestants.
This dragged Eurovision and its parent organisation, the EBS, into deep disrepute – quite rightly. As a public broadcasting union, the EBU must be reminded that they exist to serve the people. The environment that was created last year was disgusting, not just for the audience, but also for the performers. This further enhanced calls for change – which fell on deaf ears.
This year, Israel was still allowed to compete, against the wishes of a significant amount of fans and artists – including 72 former contestants who called for the barring of Israel. This brought back memories of the absolute chaos of last year, and would have affected the environment from the start.
Bookies, polls, predictions and commentators put Sweden at the top this year with other touted winners including Finland, Albania and Estonia. However, Israel topped the televote and did surprisingly well in the juries, ultimately putting them in second place behind Austria. Let’s not mince our words: Eurovision was 79 points away from dying.
The continuing participation of Israel is not only an insult to the Palestinian people – who have endured decades of suffering at the hand of Israel – it also harms Eurovison and the wider EBU. Put simply, the EBU is taking a wrecking ball to Eurovision to maintain the ‘non-political event’ nonsense and appease Israel.
Eurovision is inherently political
Let’s get one thing clear: music is political, and Eurovision is inherently political. Refusing to acknowledge this, to a fault, has allowed Israel to hijack the competition to meet its propaganda needs: normalising itself and glitter washing its ongoing genocide in Palestine.
This is clearly evident in the involvement of Israel’s Government Advertising Agency promoting the Israeli performer through paid ads on social media, including YouTube. The EBU is allowing this to happen. That’s why fans are protesting. And instead of admitting fault and rectifying this, the EBU is doubling down on the ‘non-political event’ excuse, banning certain flags, silencing any mention of Palestine and suppressing the press coverage of the competition.
Israel victory could have ended Eurovision
An Israeli win at this year’s contest would have been the end of Eurovision. That’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact. Many are already boycotting Eurovision, but for significant amounts of fans that stayed, including myself, an Israeli win would have been the last straw. A mass boycott of Eurovision would have taken place next year; not just from fans, but also from artists, countries and broadcasters. If 2024 brought the contest into disrepute, 2025 kicked it while it was down, and 2026 would have killed it completely – and still could. Fans, and indeed the EBU, would have breathed a sigh of relief when Austria’s televote points were announced. It’s time to put an end to this fiasco.
If nothing else, this year has proven that the EBU must remove Israel from the competition, if not for issues of conscience, then for the sake of the continuation and reputation of the contest. Unfortunately, it seems morals do not come into the EBU’s decision-making process. We can only hope they see the writing on the wall before next year’s contest in Austria. This issue will not go away.
Palestine deserves better. It deserves an end to the brutal bombardment of its people and the platforming of its aggressor; it deserves recognition of statehood and respect from the international community. Solidarity costs nothing.
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