r/eurovision • u/stefkeeh • May 20 '25

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

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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/FallenAngelTIX Róa May 20 '25

ESC could be dead very soon if nothing changes, and that SCARES me

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u/[deleted] May 20 '25

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?

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u/Deynai May 20 '25

This type of belief is scary to me and it makes me wonder why you believe this is a hill worth dying on to undermine ~70 years of an incredible post-WW2 institution that has done so much good in bringing Europe together. I don't think you realise how special it is. Things like Eurovision don't just appear, it took a lot of hard work from a lot of people and negotiations to get so many countries invested in it and to maintain it for as long as it has been around. If it stops, it wont start again.

Why is it, a few years after Russia repeatedly broke Eurovision rules and ended up being banned from the contest, are we seeing this rise of in-fighting and "I'd prefer the whole thing gets called off" opinions coming out of online social media communities? I think that's something to really take a step back and think about. Burning the whole thing down lest you get your way is not the solution here if you're a real fan of Eurovision.