Eurovision has faced political boycotts before – how do the latest compare? | Eurovision

The decision by four European broadcasters to boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest over Israel’s inclusion is undoubtedly a watershed moment in the song contest’s 70-year history.

It would be one of the few truly popular, non-elitist pan-European cultural events without Spain, one of the “big five” countries in terms of financial contributions; Ireland, which has won the competition more than any other country except Sweden; The Netherlands, founding member in 1956; And Slovenia, which symbolizes the expansion of the European Union eastward.

With the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, and no sign of the Israeli Kan channel withdrawing on its own, this may remain the case for some time to come.

Meanwhile, political boycotts are nothing new at all for the world’s biggest live music event, no matter what its organizers say about the supposedly apolitical nature of the competition.

“Greece and Turkey boycotted the event, in 1975 and 1976 respectively, because of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus,” said Paul Jordaens, a cultural historian who was a member of the international jury for France’s national selection for Eurovision in 2019. Armenia refused to participate when the 2012 event was held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Ironically, Spain, whose station RTVE was the most vocal of the four boycotters, was the target of the first call for a boycott in the competition’s history. At the ninth edition of Eurovision, in Copenhagen in 1964, a young Danish left-wing activist stormed the stage carrying a banner reading “Boycott Franco and Salazar”, in protest against Spain and Portugal being allowed to compete even though they were run by military dictatorships.

Spain won Eurovision in 1968 and hosted the 1969 contest, which was boycotted in protest against the Franco regime by Austria, which will be the 2026 host and is one of the countries most scandalized now due to the boycott of the four breakaway nations.

You might say that all this means that Spain’s activist stance smacks of hypocrisy, or you could say that the country is in a stronger position to peer through the dry fog and glitter and see what Eurovision is really about.

Duncan Wheeler, head of Spanish studies at the University of Leeds, said: “Spain joined Eurovision straight after being banned from the European Economic Community, and it was about ending its ostracism and entering the elite club.” “Her history with Eurovision has made her keenly aware of how popular culture can act as a soft power.”

Given the word “Euro” in the title, some will wonder what right Israel has to have a place in the song contest in the first place. This would misunderstand the origins of Eurovision, which was never designed as a top-down means of building a common European culture, but rather as a fairly ordinary experiment in cross-border broadcasting that acquired political meaning almost by accident.

One frequently overlooked fact is that not only Israel, but also other North African and Middle Eastern countries including Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, are full members of the European Broadcasting Union, which regulates the scene.

Israel was the first to participate in the competition in 1973, but Morocco participated once in 1980, when Israel withdrew due to a religious holiday on the same evening. Lebanon was scheduled to participate in the competition in 2005 but withdrew its artist when he was told that he would be required to broadcast the entire event, including the Israeli participation.

You could say that these countries boycotted Eurovision because of Israel’s participation from the beginning, but they were so firm in their stance that hardly anyone noticed.

However, the boycott of Eurovision by Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands marks a turning point in Eurovision history, and creates a problem that may take years to resolve.

But since the song contest contains very few of the true articles of faith that were essential to its beginning, its crisis may not be existential. Eurovision values ​​are the sum of those submitted by participating countries to the competition. Whenever the four hecklers return, they may inject new life into her.