The Eurovision Controversy: Israel’s Impact on the Contest

Despite 2 years of controversy over the participation of Israël to the contest the EBU as organising body keeps asserting that the festival is not political and a force of unification. Obviously many people disagree, so much so that a number of countries decided not to participate this year. And a recurring theme after the contest seems to be one of relief that at least Israël didn’t win and a complete disaster for the organisation has been avoided. For many years the festival was a unique European event even though the average quality of the songs was never very great. As a kid I didn’t like watching it at all, mainly because I found the songs mostly awful. In later years I only watched with family and friends to see what campy acts were participating, not because I was expecting to hear a lot of good music even though there were some good songs in most editions. But since the debacle with the poorly motivated disqualification of Joost Klein I gave up and am not watching anymore. I just wake up the next morning and read to be relieved that Israël didn’t win. Like this morning when I read Bulgaria won. Seems like it was a narrow escape again with Israël being in the lead for a long time. Maybe they should win and that would be the end of the festival once and for all. It is a sad situation but fundamentally I think we are here because the EBU tries to deny the existence of the outside world.