In the seven-decade history of Eurovision, it is unlikely that the flamboyant contestants, the tireless organizers or the cautious media managers have repeated a three-word slogan with such ease: The world, they insist, can be “united by music”.
But Malmo, the Swedish city embrace the kitsch cultural phenomenon This year, Eurovision is increasingly divided.
Saturday’s Eurovision final will be watched by more than 150 million people worldwide on television and around 15,000 fans will gather at the Malmo Arena. But the concert may be only the second-most attended event in the city that night; A pro-Palestinian protest, calling for Israel’s elimination from the race, expects at least 20,000 attendees, and possibly many more.
The competition – desperately trying to maintain its “apolitical” label – has so far become the biggest cultural event rocked by the fallout from Israel’s war in Gaza. Israel’s military strike has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza since it was launched in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage. Those who protest or boycott the song contest claim that it is “artistically whitewashing” the conflict; others defend the inclusion of Israel, insisting that the contest should not be dragged into geopolitics.
“Politics influences the event from time to time,” Paul Jordan, a pageant fan and researcher who worked on its communications team from 2015 to 2018, told CNN. But this year, “Israel’s presence has become such an important issue that I think it will overshadow the event,” he said.
Weeks of simmering tension over the issue are coming to light this week in Malmo, ahead of the contest’s semi-finals on Tuesday and Thursday. And they’re causing perhaps the most tense three minutes in the contest’s history, as Israel’s competitor Eden Golan performs live.
“We could very well see protests in the arena, we could see boos,” Jordan said. “I imagine the scale in Malmo would be larger than anything we’ve seen before.”
An increasingly political song contest
It’s hard to pierce the bubble of celebration that surrounds the competition each year. But even among the media-managed Eurovision contestants, there are some rumblings of discontent this time.
“It’s frustrating. I don’t agree with that at all. It doesn’t make sense,” Bambie Thug, a participant from Ireland, told CNN of the extensive rules restricting any form of pro-Palestinian statements during the event.
The singer previously issued a statement resisting calls to boycott the event, saying they instead intended to provide a “pro-Palestinian voice” in Malmo. They told CNN that Israel’s participation in the competition was a “wrong decision.”
Founded by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in 1956 as a project to foster unity among national broadcasters, Eurovision has been tossed and tossed for decades by the continent’s geopolitical currents. It offers an unparalleled soft power building platform to Member States with poor human rights records, such as Azerbaijan and, until two years agoRussia.
The full Eurovision stage at the Malmo Arena is shown at a news conference in Malmo, Sweden, on April 25, 2024. (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP, File)
But this year is the most difficult yet for the EBU, which decided not to exclude Israel over the country’s war in Gaza, while Russia was banned after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, contrasting stances that led to calls for double standards.
“The two are not comparable at all,” EBU director general Noel Curran told CNN, insisting that Israel’s national broadcaster, KAN, did not violate contest rules like Russia, which is the definitive proof of eligibility for the contest.
“If we start to decide across the board that we are going to exclude people, based on geopolitical situations or terrible things that could be happening in the world, then every year we will have groups of people asking for Someone to exclude, whether it’s Azerbaijan or anyone else,” Curran said.
“We want to try to make the race as apolitical as possible,” he added. “And that is difficult.”
Maybe I’m underestimating things. Publicists representing some of Europe’s most eccentric musical artists in Malmo have been especially wary of their talent, trying to shield them from questions related to the protests taking place just meters from their hotels.
CNN asked to interview Golan, Israel’s interpreter, for this story, but was told it would only be arranged if CNN provided the questions beforehand, which goes against standard journalistic practices.
The EBU was already forced to intervene when Golan’s opening song, “October Rain,” was deemed to make too close a reference to the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
And the EBU has worked hard to prevent dissent from filtering into the Malmo Arena. Longstanding rules preventing flags from non-competing countries and territories mean Palestinian flags are banned from the crowd, which Bambie Thug told CNN they “100 percent” disagree with.
Artists are also unable to make statements, although some may risk being punished (a fine for their broadcaster) for doing so, as Iceland’s law did in 2019, when raised Palestinian flags during the contest, which was held in Israel.
“Obviously, we wouldn’t want them to do that,” Curran said. “That’s not something we want artists to do, and it’s in the rules that they shouldn’t and can’t do it.”
When asked by CNN, the EBU did not rule out adjusting sound levels on the broadcast to mask booing if it occurs during the Israeli performance.
But despite all their efforts, Eurovision bosses will be holding their breath as Golan sings in Saturday’s grand final if, as expected, he advances from Thursday’s semi-final.
“The real concern would be any threat of violence, particularly toward singers,” Jordan said. “The worst nightmare could be a stage invasion.” The latter occurred during the UK performance in 2018, when a man He snatched the microphone from the singer SuRie and shouted a message before being eliminated.
‘He has divided the city’
As Malmo attempted to organize a week of events and performances to celebrate Eurovision, it ran into a problem: artists kept dropping out, following pressure from pro-Palestinian groups calling for a boycott of the contest.
“In a way, this has divided the city,” admitted Karin Karlsson, responsible for organizing the events in Malmö. “I don’t think we will boycott any issue related to the war in Gaza,” she said.
In total, he said, 20 artists had abandoned their performances in the city. But Karlsson is not intimidated. “I sleep well,” he said. “I want to show everyone a vibrant, super diverse city, where we can live next to each other but still think differently.”
He hopes Malmo is on track to meet that goal. “But you never know. It’s uncertain right now.”
Their efforts may have been complicated by the choice of host. “(Malmo) has a history of resistance and solidarity, and is a working class city, but at the same time the municipality has tried to change the image of Malmo as a more global city,” said Elina Pahnke, a Malmo journalist who covers culture for him, Aftonbladet newspaper told CNN.
This has caused tensions with some residents, he said, who want resources and time dedicated to public services, rather than international spectacles.
The city is also home to large Muslim and Palestinian populations. Weekly pro-Palestinian protests have been held since Israel’s war in Gaza began in October, and the protest during Saturday’s live final could be the largest since those early weeks.
“We hope to show the EBU that the people of Malmo reject their attempted art laundering,” said Mohammad Ghannam, who has led the movement to boycott Eurovision as part of the Palestinian-led Swedish Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) group. .
A massive security operation has been launched; A Swedish police spokesperson told CNN it was one of the largest Malmö has ever seen, involving officers from Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
And last week, Israel’s National Security Council raised its travel warning for Malmo, urging Israelis planning to attend Eurovision to reconsider whether it is necessary to do so. He cited a “tangible concern that terrorists will take advantage of the anti-Israel protest and atmosphere to carry out an attack against Israelis” and described Malmo as a center of “anti-Israel protests.”
Lara Yosef, a 30-year-old Syrian migrant in Malmo who will attend Saturday’s rally, said that when she walks past the Eurovision advertisements in her city, “I see blood.”
“I hope some artists surprise us and make some statements on stage,” Yosef said.
Amid those tensions, some artists have complained of online harassment and abuse, while others have praised pro-Palestinian protesters. “Power to them for protesting,” Bambie Thug said, before her media manager quickly asked CNN to return to questions focused on her music.
But many more are working to block out what is becoming an almost deafening distraction, joining Eurovision organizers to offer sensitive commentary. “(Our) sympathy is (with) all the people who say war is s**t,” said Ukrainian contestant Alyona Alyona. “Because who, if not us, can say what war is and what the f**k it is?”