More than 70 former participants of the Eurovision Song Contest, including Salvador Sobral, issued an open letter today urging the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to exclude the Israeli broadcaster KAN from the competition.
The signatories, which also include Portuguese artists such as António Calvário, Fernando Tordo, Lena D’Água, and Rita Reis from the former band Nonstop, base their appeal on the belief that KAN is “complicit in the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”
“We, the former Eurovision participants, urge all members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to demand the exclusion of KAN, the Israeli public broadcaster, from the Eurovision Song Contest. KAN is complicit in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the decades-long regime of ‘apartheid’ and military occupation against the entire Palestinian people”, the letter reads, available here.
The letter, published jointly by the non-governmental organization Artists For Palestine and the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, is signed by former contest winners including Salvador Sobral (2017) and Irish Charlie McGettigan (1994), alongside other former representatives like songwriters, musicians, dancers, and choir members.
“We believe in the unifying power of music and refuse to allow it to be used as a tool to mask crimes against humanity”, the statement declares, with former participants asserting that Israel’s presence has made the 2024 edition “the most politicized, chaotic, and unpleasant” in the competition’s history.
“Last year, we were horrified that the EBU allowed Israel to participate while the genocide in Gaza continued, broadcast live to the world. The result was disastrous”, the statement further explains.
The 70 signatories claim that the EBU has not acknowledged the criticism nor reflected on its mistakes and granted “full impunity” to the Israeli delegation while suppressing other artists and delegations.
Stressing the urgent need to speak out amid the rise of authoritarian and far-right movements globally, the letter’s signatories recall that the EBU demonstrated its ability to take drastic measures when it expelled Russia from the competition in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine.
“We do not accept this double standard regarding Israel. We express solidarity with this year’s competitors and condemn the EBU’s repeated refusal to take responsibility”.
The letter is issued a week before the start of Eurovision 2025, scheduled to take place in Basel, Switzerland, on May 13, 15, and 17.
Among the signatories are former representatives from countries such as Finland, France, Ireland, Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, and Malta.
This year, Israel is set to be represented by Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Hamas attack on the Nova Festival on October 7, 2023.
In April, Spanish television (RTVE) sent a letter to EBU President Noel Curran requesting “the opening of a debate” regarding Israel’s participation in the competition. This request was later echoed by Slovenian and Icelandic television stations.
Israel has participated in the contest since 1973, winning four times: in 1978 with the song ‘A-Ba-Ni-Bi’ performed by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta, and the following year when the contest was held in Jerusalem with ‘Hallelujah’ by Gali Atari and Milk & Honey.
A song in Hebrew, ‘Diva,’ again won the festival in 1998 with Dana International. Israel’s most recent victory in the event occurred in Lisbon in 2018, with ‘Toy,’ a song performed in English by Netta Barzilai.
