After this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, the BBC received complaints about their coverage of the event. The broadcaster responded to the complaints, saying: “some aspects of the broadcast…didn’t appeal to everyone”. Despite this, the BBC maintained that the competition “remained within general expectations for this annual event”. The Eurovision Song Contest is organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and attracts millions of viewers each year. This year’s event saw an average of 7.64 million viewers, with a peak of 8.46 million.
Controversies during this year’s contest included calls for a boycott due to Israel’s participation, their role in the Israel-Palestine conflict and the EBU’s political neutrality clause that reserved the right to remove Palestinian flags and symbols. The EBU also censored Irish contestant Bambie Thug for wearing a message on their costume saying ‘ceasefire’ and ‘freedom for Palestine’.
Boycott calls from over 1,000 Swedish artists, including Robyn and First Aid Kit, and more than 1,400 Finnish music industry professionals expressed their desire for Israel to be banned. Over 400 Irish artists also called for Bambie Thug to boycott the contest. Israel’s broadcaster, Kan issued a statement blaming “an unprecedented display of hatred” from other delegations and artists for the immense pressure which their delegation faced, solely because of the fact that they were Israelis at the event.
Switzerland’s Nemo won the Eurovision Song Contest with their song ‘The Code’, with the victory marking Switzerland’s first win since 1988. During their victory speech, Nemo called for the contest to continue to stand for “peace and dignity” for every individual. However, in a press conference, Nemo appeared critical of the contest calling for it to be “fixed” and describing it as an “unbelievable double standard”
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