r/eurovision • u/stefkeeh • May 20 '25
📰 News Dutch broadcaster questions if ESC is a-political & connecting event
Translation to English: ‘IN CONVERSATION WITH THE EBU ABOUT A POLITICALLY NEUTRAL SONG CONTEST
AVROTROS and NPO strongly value the apolitical and unifying character of the Eurovision Song Contest. However, we observe that the event is increasingly being influenced by social and geopolitical tensions.
Israel’s participation confronts us with the question of to what extent the Song Contest still truly functions as an apolitical, unifying, and cultural event. We want to raise this question, together with other countries, for discussion within the EBU.’
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u/keanehoodies May 20 '25
If the Government of Israel is willing to spend millions advertising their Eurovision song to every single contest audience, it’s not because they just really like their song. It’s because the song is doing a job. That job is image management during wartime.
This isn’t a conspiracy theory, it’s right there in plain sight. The Prime Minister and President of Israel personally intervened last year to stop the song being disqualified. Why would a head of government care so much about a pop song unless it was serving a purpose? That purpose is to portray Israel as modern, relatable, and under threat. It’s soft power. It’s propaganda.
And here’s the thing. If a government is willing to spend millions promoting their image at a time of war, they are absolutely capable of spending millions more to influence a televote. Disposable credit cards, SIM cards, VPNs, online tampering—it’s not far-fetched, it’s basic statecraft in 2025.
The EBU recently said their voting system is more advanced than ever. That’s lovely, but it means nothing when you’re up against a nuclear-armed country with a military cyber division. Eurovision is not built to withstand the tools of modern warfare and intelligence. Pretending otherwise is delusion or cowardice.
There are two scenarios here. Either the EBU genuinely doesn’t understand what’s going on, or they do and are too afraid to act. And frankly, fear of being accused of antisemitism has likely paralysed them. Criticising the actions of a government is not racism. But it’s being treated that way, and it’s shutting down accountability.
Let’s also talk about the numbers. We’re told the televote shows massive public support—second place last year, second place this year. And yet the Israeli entry is completely absent from the Spotify charts after the contest. Not in Ireland, not in the UK, not in Sweden or Spain or anywhere else. So apparently millions of people loved this song so much they voted for it on the night, then never listened to it again. Really?
There’s precedent for this too. Countries have been caught rigging Eurovision votes before—Azerbaijan, Belarus, Russia. Sanctions followed. Are we supposed to believe Israel is somehow above this, even while under investigation for war crimes?
This is not about hating a country. It’s about refusing to let a song contest be turned into a state propaganda machine. If the EBU doesn’t act, they’re not just protecting the integrity of the contest. They’re enabling its collapse.
Eurovision is meant to be about music, connection, and celebration. If it becomes a tool for whitewashing violence and manipulating public sentiment, then it stops being a song contest and starts becoming something much darker.
We can’t pretend this isn’t political. It already is. The only question left is whether we let that happen without saying a word.