We’re a little over a month past what was probably the most chaotic edition of the Eurovision Song Contest yet. It feels like an eternity and at the same time the memories of being on the ground in Malmö seem like yesterday. A lot has happened this ‘season’. And it’s safe to say a lot has to be digested before we can all move on. Things were allowed to happen that were never meant to. And a lot of things that should’ve happened did not. What went wrong? What went right? Did artists and fans alike get the experience they envisioned? How do we move forward? And most importantly: Was 2024 the last edition as some fanatics online claim? That’s what I’ll be trying to answer in this blog.
So is Eurovision actually doomed? Short answer: no. Eurovision is not facing its demise. Or at least not yet. Although I’ll be the first to admit that we’ve found ourselves at a bit of a crossroads here. We’ve hit a bump in the road, or more accurately, we seem to have hit a deer. I think there are several points of vantage from which to look at the current situation.
The casual viewer
As an outsider, someone outside of the “bubble”, you will most likely not have realized just how bad things have gotten this year. If you are just a casual viewer it will have been quite easy to separate the current geopolitical situation from the actual contest. At most you will have heard your commentator mentioning the tension backstage regarding the Israeli delegation. And you will most probably not have given the matter a second thought. Especially not since the EBU once again used their infamous anti booing system. In an attempt to make it seem like we’re all just chums who are enjoying a silly little singing competition.
The ‘haters’
Another point of view will be that of the ‘haters’. I hate (pun intended) using that word. But as with everything in life, you have lovers and haters. You must know who I’m talking about. They’re the ones who have an actual paid account on news apps and like to comment and give their salty opinion on everything they can. Even if they have no knowledge of the subject whatsoever. Belgian news apps are full of these comments. And when it comes to Eurovision, they get very passionate about something they claim not to care about at all.
Some of the usual comments: “We (insert country) are always considered contenders but then we never make it to the final” (even though we do). Another one: “Europe hates us, we should stop competing” (and no this is not just the UK). And my all time favorite: “Eurovision is such a circus, better we should stop investing money in this shitshow”.
These haters would probably strongly agree with some of the comments on social media over the past few weeks that Eurovision is dying. Cause surely we all feel the same way about what’s going on in the world, so naturally there is no chance that the contest can keep going. But the truth is rather more layered and complicated than that. We sadly do not all feel the same way. That much was made very clear… Israel was there whether we liked it or not. We tried with all our (limited) might, but the EBU decided not to listen.
The ‘Eurofans’
And that brings me to the third and in my opinion most complex point of view: That of the Eurofans. Whether you like that name or not, we’re all a part of it. We’re a community. And even tho we’re at each other’s throats sometimes, we are bound together by our love for Eurovision.
This season we have been tested. To see whether or not we would stick together through this storm or fall apart. Some of us decided to boycott, vowing never to watch again. Others decided that they’d still watch, but ignore the presence of Israel. And others still have concluded that to them this is a music competition and politics should be left completely out of it.
I personally like to think of myself as someone who has always been quite able to see the bigger picture. To look beyond extremes on both sides of an issue whilst acknowledging some of their points. I’d say my biggest asset (and sometimes my biggest downfall) is that I always try and see the good in people. I chose to acknowledge Israel’s participation, but not to engage with it in any way. What hurt me is that some people, whichever camp they were in, claim that their opinion is the only valid one. And that bugs me.
It’s caused rifts in the fandom, it wounded us and for quite some time it seemed like we weren’t going to recover. The haters had won. They’d gotten their way at last. Because we were unable to see that no matter how we decided to deal with the situation, we the eurofans, really all wanted the same thing: For the world to find peace again and for Eurovision to be a celebration. We decided to aim our arrows at each other, and more horribly so, at the artists.
And some of these artists have gotten the full blow. I think of Olly Alexander, who was targeted by a group of fanatics, outsiders, people who never even watch the contest. And it hit him hard. Those who were present at the London pre-party will vouch that Olly did not seem himself. At EiC, he (along with Luxembourg’s artist Tali) was kept separate from the other artists at the press event. Only bigger and pre approved media were allowed to talk to them. That is not in the spirit of Eurovision.
Is Eurovision truly apolitical?
Again we aimed our arrows at the wrong people and blamed each other for this when in reality we should’ve been aiming them at the EBU. And that takes me to the real issue. The reason why everything went tits up. It is them that created this mess. Whether or not you believe that Eurovision should be apolitical (I think we all would love that to be true), in reality it never has been. Politics have always been a part of it. It was politics that caused for Europe to be in need of an event like Eurovision in the first place. It was politics that made certain countries not compete for years, in some cases to this day. And it is politics that’s made the voting segments such a chaotic but brilliant mess.
And the EBU, by blindly trying so hard to keep the contest apolitical, have really created the exact opposite result. They have demonstrated a level of unprofessionalism so massive that it actually caused several broadcasters and artists threatening to withdraw from the competition on the day of the final. From the decision to let Israel compete, over the disqualification of Joost Klein, to the lack of communication. It’s hard to believe that an organization this old and experienced has managed to fail so badly.
So what went wrong?
Israel in Eurovision
Let’s start with Israel’s participation. What has compelled the EBU to let them participate? I realize that this is a tricky and touchy subject. Again it comes down to whether or not you can separate politics from the contest. As I have already said, I can’t. Why was Israel allowed to compete with everything that’s going on, when Russia and Belarus were banned? Why did the EBU refuse to see reason? They claim that the Russian state television broke the rules, by using the contest as war propaganda. Yet despite the abundance of evidence that KAN was doing the same they chose not to ban them? Where’s the logic?
Why did they keep hiding behind the belief that “Eurovision is not a political event”? Why was there never any statement of them condemning what Israel is doing? Eurovision was first brought to life to unite a war torn Europe. You’d think in that spirit they would at least offer their sympathy to the victims of this genocide. Most of the issues (if not all of them) that we have faced this year could have been avoided had they made one very important decision…
The disqualification of the Netherlands
Moving on to Joost and The Netherlands… Obviously something happened between the Dutch delegation and a second party. The problem is, to this day we still don’t know exactly what. All the information we have is based on rumors. Rumors coming from the press centre, where one person let slip something to another. Who in their turn passed that information on (albeit slightly exaggerated) to the next. Information that found its way on to the internet…
Why was he disqualified from the contest with the investigation still going and without an official statement explaining exactly what had happened? Surely if there’s enough evidence to disqualify him they could’ve been open and honest about it. I realize that no details were allowed to be given pending the investigation. But they could at least have retorted the rumors that were being spread. So why was he not just allowed to compete as long as there was no proof that he was actually guilty of something? And more importantly, why were Joost’s boundaries not respected? Instead they just allowed his reputation to be ruined by these rumors rather than addressing the matter.
Treatment of the artists
So much has gone wrong. But we would be silly to assume that these issues are new. Severals artists, both from this year and past editions have since spoken out about their traumatic experiences. Dutch singer S10 has spoken openly about her Eurovision adventure, especially the backstage area which she called “not really a pleasant environment for the artists”. “People constantly want something from you, everyone is pulling your arm, yeah that took its toll on me”. “I wanted to deliver but a lot of people did not respect my boundaries”.
La Zarra, who represented France in 2023, has also expressed that her Eurovision experience was traumatic. “I felt like I was the slave of France Télévision”. She claims to have been pressured by the head of the French delegation to dye her hair blonde because she looked “too Arab”. “For me, it was racism”, she adds.
Many artist this year have criticized the negative vibes in the backstage area as well. Nemo (Switzerland), Bambie Thug (Ireland), Marina Satti (Greece), Iolanda (Portugal) and Gåte (Norway) have all spoken out about the hostile environment backstage. Some of them claim they have been personally harassed by members of the Israeli delegation and press, such as being made fun off, insulted and filmed without their consent. Many artists this year have said to have been ambushed by the delegation to interact with Eden Golan, which was subsequently filmed and put on the internet without them knowing.
What happened on stage
Silvester Belt (Lithuania) talks about taking the stage in the arena right after Eden Golan’s performance. “Going after that country, with the crowd being so intense, was one of the worst things I had to go through, I really did the best that I could in this situation… traumatic experience, wish it all ended after the first semi”. The post has since been deleted but sadly shows that even though the show appears to be all glamour and glitter, in reality it can get very harsh and hostile.
Belgium’s representative Mustii has recently come forward about his experience as well, saying he “wasn’t the happiest man during the Eurovision story”. “I went through ups and downs and I’m certainly not happy with the end result of my performance. I wasn’t completely connected with what was happening around me”. He finished his semi final performance revealing the word “peace” written on his arm in glitter. A clear message.
During France’s jury rehearsal, Slimane traded his usual trick where he steps back from the mic and belts for a message of peace and love. Something he was not allowed to repeat during the live show. Iolanda from Portugal painted her nails with a pattern of a ‘keffiyeh’ during the final. An act that prompted the EBU to first re-upload her semi final performance.
Eric Saade who graced us with a fabulous rendition of his 2011 entry “Popular” also secretly went on stage during the live show wearing a keffiyeh around his wrist. The EBU never uploaded the performance. Bambie (Ireland) had written the word “ceasefire” on their face in Ogham writing, something they were forced to change by the EBU.
And finally, after winning the final on Saturday, Nemo was asked by a journalist about fans being barred from bringing the non binary flag into the arena. Nemo said that they themselves had to smuggle in the flag because Eurovision said no. They ended by saying “I broke the trophy, but that can be fixed, maybe Eurovision needs a little fixing too”.
What needs to happen?
So what exactly can the EBU do to fix Eurovision? It’s really quite simple. As a fan, I think despite the negativity most of us got to experience Eurovision to the fullest. Watching the national selections, going to or watching livestreams of the pre-parties, seeing the artists interact with each other. Most of the time from our point of view all of it went rather smoothly until the whole situation with Joost came along. However for the artists themselves all did not go as planned. The EBU have put these people (often very young and inexperienced) through what might be the most traumatic experience of their careers so far. THAT is where change needs to be made.
- They need to rethink how they can navigate press events, rehearsals and media releases (going from rehearsal footage to promo clips) without crossing any personal boundaries. Not a single artist should ever leave the competition feeling bad or traumatized. Why do we need footage from first rehearsals? Very often things go wrong during these technical rehearsals. That’s what they’re there for, to see what works and what doesn’t, make changes and optimize the performance.
What good does it do for anyone releasing clips of performances that are only half finished? It causes stress with the artists who want their fans to get the full picture and it causes stress with the fans who see footage they don’t like and start to despair cause their favorites are not delivering what they had hoped for. How many times have we all gone apeshit at a 20 second rehearsal clip filmed by someone in the arena with an iPhone, only to be surprised when the actual full performance turns out to be great? I say let the artists and the delegations decide for themselves what and when they want to release footage.
Why do we need to see the artists reactions coming off of the stage when they just had their first rehearsal? When in some cases, everything went wrong and all they really want to do is go to their dressing room and be with the people they trust and love to vent. To work on making it better. Who knows, if Joost had not been harassed coming off of the stage, nothing would have happened and we would’ve been able to see Europapa scoring high in the final. - Communication! Did they really think that by ignoring everything that went wrong it would just go away? It seems quite obvious that when the world is screaming off the top of its lungs as an international organization you would address the matter. Why did we have to go months before they finally made a (wrong) decision on Israel?
Why did they allow the internet to come up with the wildest theories regarding the Dutch disqualification? You have a room full of press and fan media watching a livestream of the jury rehearsal and you just allow a delegation to not be there without any explanation. What did they think was going to happen? That we weren’t going to notice?
Whether or not Joost really did something wrong, they could’ve just let him be a part of the rehearsal, keep up pretenses, until they had sufficient evidence to exclude him. It would’ve saved them a lot of headaches. What if he is cleared? They could face the withdrawal of one of the founding members of the contest. Did anyone actually think this through I wonder? - And lastly: STOP with the double standards… You can not claim to be all inclusive, and then ban flags or symbols that stand for inclusion and peace. You can not ban one country for breaking a rule and then let another compete despite doing the same. You can not claim to be apolitical and then make decisions based on political reasons. And finally, you can not utter the words ‘united by music’ when every decision you have made has caused division.
Let’s hope that the EBU take the time to fully re-evaluate what has happened and take the necessary steps to make the contest a safe environment for the delegations and the fans. Several broadcasters have already announced that they will keep participation next year under consideration pending the EBU’s actions regarding these issues. The pressure is on (Laura would be appalled).
Final conclusion
So finally to answer my own question I asked previously: Did we pass the test? As a fandom, as a community, I like to think that we did. Sure we lost some of our friends along the way. But history shows that you can never pick a side without having to say goodbye to people you have held dear. We can only hope that these people will one day rediscover the beauty that is Eurovision, and return to the fandom. That I would say is probably the biggest upset of this year. That some of us have lost our love for the music and for each other.
But all in all, despite the hostility to which we have all at some point been subjected online, we have somehow found a way to come together. Being there in person for the first time ever has taught me that even tho we may have our differences, we all have that one thing in common: Our passion for music. People of all parts of the world, of different walks of life, religion, sexual orientation or gender were all interacting with each other. Artists and fans alike. Laughing, dancing and singing along to the songs, sometimes in languages we don’t even speak. What is more beautiful than that? Perhaps, and forgive me for this blasphemy, Nemo was wrong… Maybe Eurovision does not need fixing at all… Maybe the EBU is the one that needs fixing.
Cause at the end of the day, as Bambie has so beautifully put into words: Eurovision, that’s us. The artists, the fans, the community! We are the ones continuing to stick together as we have done now more than ever before. It’s not about the competition, or about winning. Sure we all hope our favorites qualify and do well. But ultimately what sticks with us are the memories made amongst friends. The music we shared and the artists that we have discovered. And before you know it, you end up with the name of a Finnish band tattooed on your thigh!
We are the ones that are truly ‘united by music’. And in that spirit let’s celebrate by taking one more look at our winner (in every sense of the word): Nemo!
