A first in the history of a competition not without controversy. The Dutchman Joost Klein, candidate for the 2024 edition of Eurovision, whose final will be held this Saturday afternoon, May 11 in Sweden, was excluded from the singing contest after an “incident.” An unprecedented situation for a candidate in full competition since its creation in 1956.
Requests to exclude Israel
Officially apolitical, Eurovision has been rocked on several occasions by geopolitical issues. This year, due to the war between Israel and Hamas, following the deadly attack on October 7, several countries called in particular for the exclusion of the Jewish State from the competition.
The first song chosen by the Israeli candidate, Eden Golan, was also rejected by the organizers of the musical event. The reason? The song “October Rain” was seen as a reference to the victims of the Palestinian Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and considered too politically charged.
For some commentators, words like “there is no more air to breathe” and “they were all good children, every one of them” were reminiscent of the victims of the Hamas attack.
The 20-year-old changed the lyrics of the song, now called “Hurricane” and can enter the contest. While the song no longer mentions the conflict between Israel and Hamas as directly, several Israeli media outlets and observers believe it still implicitly refers to it.
Russia and Belarus absent
However, another country will be absent this year: Russia, excluded from the competition in 2022. The cause is not directly the Russian offensive in Ukraine, which occurred in February of that year, but the Russian broadcasters, accused by the European Broadcasting Union ( EBU). ) of “persistent failures to fulfill their obligations as members and to have violated the values of public service”, according to its general director, Noel Curran. More precisely, the channels were criticized for their proximity to the Kremlin and their promotion of the conflict against Ukraine.
Therefore, the situation with Israel is considered different. “Our governing bodies… agreed that Israeli public broadcaster Kan complied with all contest rules for this year and could participate as it has done for the past 50 years,” the EBU said in response to the criticism.
Belarus has also been excluded from Eurovision since 2021. That year it presented a song titled Ya Nauchu Tebya (I will teach you) (I’ll show you, editor’s note), which had been deemed ineligible due to its political subtext.
A new, more nuanced piece was proposed, but it still did not meet the standards, and the country was disqualified, due to lack of time to record another. Since then he has not participated in the competition.
Countries are withdrawing on their own
In recent years, several countries have occasionally refused to participate in Eurovision.
This was particularly the case for Georgia in 2009, when the competition was held in Moscow that year. The former Soviet republic preferred to surrender after its song “We don’t want to put in” (“we don’t want to be part of this”, making a play on words with Vladimir Putin) was rejected because it was considered mockery. the current Russian President, at that time Prime Minister.
In 2012, Turkey announced for its part that it would not send any more candidates to the competition, officially because it declared itself dissatisfied with the voting system, which did not give enough importance to public votes and called for audiences that were too weak. Observers, however, speak of a decision motivated by the country’s conservative turn.
Source: BFM TV
