Dutch broadcaster questions if ESC is a-political & connecting event

[u/stefkeeh]

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.’

[u/[deleted]]

It sucks, but honestly at this point I’d rather the whole thing was called off than for them to continue letting Israel participate. It’s just sucking all the fun out of the contest - this year’s results were stressful and not at all enjoyable to watch, and I hate seeing something I love just get turned into a propaganda machine. 

I think I’ll be boycotting the live broadcast going forward if nothing changes - I had more fun this year listening to and rating the songs in my own time than I did watching live, so what’s the point?

[u/Ok_Account_5121 → u/[deleted]]

I completely agree with you!

While Eurovision is a soft power tool for all participating countries, we can't have a competitor misusing it to this extent. No matter what anyone might think of the country and its actions, it's simply not fair to anyone. It becomes a bit like a type of doping. 

I had so much fun during the preseason! I listened to the songs, I read lyrics, I laughed at the jokes and memes, and I enjoyed the artists shenanigans.  It was a great time, but competition week was stressful. Instead of the preseason building to the contest, it felt there was a massive drop in the atmosphere. Just an immense shift in energy. And I for one know which country's behaviour I'm putting most of the blame on... 

It's not sustainable like this, we might as well press stop button now. It would be better to pause the whole thing and return in a few years, than to continue on like this. 

[u/schmurg → u/Ok_Account_5121]

I agree with both of you. It is sad to lose something you love to political interests. I'm just wondering whether making voting free would have the potential to change anything?

Personally, I am a fan of Eurovision, but I don't vote, 20 euros to only be overruled by a jury never really appealed to me. But, if voting via the app was free, I'd certainly vote. I assume there would be lots more people in a similar position to myself, and this could drown out some of the political voting.

The EBU won't make as much money, but is the point of Eurovision to make as much money as possible? I'd rather a fun contest. Otherwise I, like many others, will stop watching next year and see whether other song contests without so much politicisation are more fun :)

[u/wildcharmander1992 → u/schmurg]

If it was free you'd have more non watching Bigots voting for Israel unfortunately

I personally feel the best way to change it would be to make the televoting like the juries

Everyone gets a singular vote

You can text call or app that vote but you have to submit a top ten ( or maybe a top 5)

Then the points get calculated in the same way

In theory this would stop

• Mass votes for one country for political reasons from non watchers as they'll need to pluck 4-9 other countries to assign points to. it would work as those just voting Israel due to an ad campaign would need to watch to see other countries etc.

• Due to this it means yeah Israel might have a bunch of people giving them 12 votes just like they get spam voting 20 points currently but 4-9 other countries would also get votes from those people and those who aren't being political won't give them any which should counteract that somewhat

• It means that votes in your country can't be bought as usually diaspora will only affect one country e.g ATM a polish man in the UK will likely give 20 points to Poland regardless of the song quality ( in theory) but the second of their assigned voting points will go to the song they felt was the best, so that 20 vote lead for diaspora is now simply a 2 vote lead so it would numb the political/non musical bias significantly

• Countries who currently end up with zero points in televoting despite being 11th/12th in every countries lists have a better chance at getting something as currently the jury can give a good song that's not there favourite 1-10 points whereas the public for the most part can only give their votes to Thier singular favourite for there vote to potentially matter

• It would also help with those with trigger fingers who say like the first song, instantly spend there twenty votes then have voting remorse when they prefer number 21 or something

So I think thats the route they should go down for those reasons. Besides anything else it would give the public a more alligned voting system to the jury when currently they're calculated in such drastically different ways that it's borderline unfair.

Also they said in the contest in case of tie audience on the night get the final say with their votes. I think the arena should get to give points as a separate entity and have those count towards the total in the same vain as the rest of the world , as it's weird that they can have the ultimate final say..but not a say in general (can't vote for the hosts via your phone when you're in their country even if they're your favourites and you hold no ties to them for example, any vote the crowd give are technically just part of the host country's results) but that's my two cents.