So Israel are still in, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium and Slovenia are out. I’m talking about political hot potato Eurovision which has come up with a fudge that pleases nobody, except Germany and Israel it would seem.
Rather than vote on whether Israel would participate the EBU asked members to vote on accepting tightened voting rules, after the clearly highly organised Israeli block voting almost saw them win last year. Tied to this vote was accepting Israel’s participation.
My son, a big Germany and Eurovision person, we all have German as well as UK citizenship, says that Germany bankrolls Eurovision and if they had pulled their participation and funding the other countries would have had to stump up a lot more cash to keep the thing going. The EBU have gone with the biggest kid on the block who threatened to take their ball and run away if Israel were excluded.
So where from here? At least four countries have withdrawn, and others seem pretty sure to follow. Israel’s vote will, no matter where they end up, be assumed to be suspect. I should say vote organising/rigging is a long and honourable Eurovision tradition and Israel’s last year was not the first.
We’ve got until May to work out whether we watch or not, but whatever happens it’ll leave a somewhat sour taste. Will we run our traditional live thread? I should add that the fudge/stitch up was because Israel clearly would have been excluded had a straight vote on their participation been held.
Germany bankrolling it.
Similar to when UK got null points, they weren’t relegated because of their funding.
Block voting – one expects no less, Cyprus will give Greece 12 points (and vice versa) regardless of the song, and same with the Baltic states.
Is it a song contest? Well it has “songs” in it, but is it not more a popularity contest between neighbouring countries.
And if Belgium aren’t in it, when does the Plastic Bertrand revival happen now?
The UK participates in the Eurovision Song Contest every year because it is one of the “Big Five” countries, which automatically qualifies for the final due to their significant financial contributions to the event.
So they wouldn’t ever be relegated they could decide not to take part even if they scored negative points.
I haven’t watched Eurovision for many a year, so I don’t think that’s going to change for this next one.
If I WAS interested in the contest and the kind of music performed in it, I’d be strongly in favour of Israel’s exclusion. But then I’m not interested.
I get it that there are a sizeable cohort of AWers who are very much Pop-Oriented beings, raised on the teat of Smash Hits, but I am not one of them. As one of the Old Fart contingent these days, my appreciation of pop is now purely nostalgic. My pop cutoff point is roughly 1984. Nearly all pop after then is mostly unknown to me and that’s fine.
Proud of my country. Slovenia announced boycott of next year’s Eurovision about three weeks ago. It was not tied to today’s voting about Israel’s participation. It was final there and then.
Good on Slovenia! (And Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium and Spain).
Factual correction: currently out are Slovenia, Spain, Netherlands and Ireland.
Bit disappointed with this thread to be honest.
Why would that be exactly? We generally thread anytime there’s a music story in the wider news. Eurovision is an annual Aword staple. Clearly there’ll be some wanting Israel in, some out etc and we usually hold a diversity of views in such threads.
Is this a music story?
Eurovision is a song contest, so yes it is a music story.
From My Lovely Horse, to Jedward, to Dustin the Turkey – Ireland will use any excuse to avoid being in it.
I didn’t realise until I read an article today that the long-banned Russians have set up their own “Intervision” Contest with participants from non-Eurovision states. Surely Israel can hop over to that one?
Any progressive democracy worth its salt is participating – China, Serbia, Brazil, Colombia, Belarus…. Vietnam won it this year with a song by the improbably named Duc Phuc.
Jedward’s performance is effortlessly the maddest thing I’ve ever seen.
It was so mad that we rewound back to make sure we’d actually seen what we’d seen.
Ironically, it was a bit like Bishop Brennan not fully comprehending at first that Ted HAD indeed kicked him up the arse!
Didn’t the USA enter the Ruskie’s contest last year?
Anyhow I can’t boycott the Eurovision version because I never watch it
Should Israel be banned from participating? IMHO definitely as they should be banned from every international event be it entertainment or sport
Agreed. It seems a bit perverse to be gleefully killing Palestinians left right and centre with impunity and then sending some berk along to Eurovision to bleat about unity, peace and so on.
Nova Music Festival
I’m talking about Eurovision.
Israel is in the Middle East, not in Europe, so why is there even a debate and how did they sneak in in the first place?
*checks schoolboy atlas – yep, Middle East*
Wait til you hear about Australia…
Eurovision is run by the European Broadcast Union, but you don’t have to be in Europe to join the EBU. The full list of members is here, but the only currently suspended members are from Belarus and Russia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:European_Broadcasting_Union_members
I am very dull.
Great fact.
Don’t rate Israel’s chances in the Middle Eastovision Song Contest.
Null points, most likely.
EBU membership is irrelevant, surely? For one thing I don’t see Australia listed, but as Si mentions, they’ve still crept into the party. Who invited them? What a farago it all is.
ABC (Aus) is listed as an associate member.
Like having a Visitor’s Pass for the day. Cheapskates.
Nigel is blamed for many things European but I’m not sure this is his fault..?