The Eurovision Song Contest is heading into the home stretch, with the second semi-final taking place on May 15, ahead of the final on Saturday, May 17.
Before the week of competition, the artists from the 37 participating countries all gathered at the official opening ceremony last Sunday on the stage of the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland. The event was designed to reflect the festive and inclusive nature of the competition. But it did not remain unclouded.
Disrupted start to Eurovision
For this year’s edition, the organizers came up with something special. Instead of having the artists walk across a turquoise Eurovision carpet in the presence of accredited journalists and selected fans, they organized a parade through the city center.
The participants presented themselves on a turquoise catwalk in front of the town hall, then got into vintage cars and retro streetcars driving them along the almost 1.5-kilometer (around 1 mile) route over the Rhine bridge to the contest venue — accompanied by brass bands, traditional costume groups and carnival clubs — strolling past some 100,000 spectators.
Those spectators lining the streets were holding the usual flags of the participating nations, as well as LGBTQ+ pride flags. But there were also Palestinian flags and signs accusing Eurovision of complicity in genocide.
Such expressions of protest were sparked by Israel’s participation in the song contest. Israeli artist Yuval Raphael was booed in front of Basel city hall, and there were threatening gestures and attempts to halt the streetcar she was on, but no serious incidents.
Only a few hundred protesters have taken to the streets in contrast to last year’s Eurovision in Malmö, Sweden, where thousands marched through the city center for several days. Israel’s representative at the time, Eden Golan, felt the wrath of other Eurovision participants.
The EBU intervenes, but stays silent
To prevent a repeat of similar incidents this year, the Eurovision organizer, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), has required artists, members of official delegations, and journalists to sign a code of conduct to ensure respectful interaction. One of the central points of this code is the prohibition of any political statements.
“The European Song Contest respects freedom of expression as a fundamental right. The participants retain their right to freedom of expression outside the competition,” the document states.
Because of that stance by the EBU, the article on Yuval Raphael on the official Eurovision website avoids mention of a crucial experience in the 24-year-old’s life: The singer survived the Hamas terrorist attack on the Supernova festival on October 7, 2023, as she lay underneath the bodies of murdered young people for several hours.
Israel’s military operation in Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks was what triggered protests at the 2024 Eurovision in Malmö. This year, Spanish broadcaster RTVE called for a debate for the first time on the participation of Israeli broadcaster KAN in the competition [according to official Eurovision Song Contest rules, individual broadcasters take part in the event, rather than the countries where they are located].
A few days before the start of this year’s contest, more than 70 former participants, musicians and songwriters called for Israel to be excluded. They accused the EBU of double standards, given that Russia was banned from the competition after it launched its war on Ukraine in 2022.
The demand to exclude Israel was later joined by last year’s Eurovision winner, Switzerland’s Nemo.
In response, Eurovision director Martin Green reiterated his support for the Israeli broadcaster and emphasized that it was not the EBU’s job to compare conflicts. The EBU had justified the exclusion of Russia’s Channel One TV broadcaster and the Rossiya channel from the Eurovision Song Contest due to non-compliance with the principles of public broadcasters.
Scandals and front-runners
Compared with that debate, the indignation of Senate Vice President Gian Marco Centinaio from right-wing populist League party over Estonian rapper Tommy Cash is no more than a storm in a teacup.
In his song “Espresso Macchiato,” Cash makes fun of common Italian clichés and Italians. “I work around the clock, so I sweat like a mafioso” was a line that particularly upset Centinaio, and he demanded that the Estonian be excluded from the competition. However, Estonia is unlikely to face sanctions.
Finnish trio KAJ, performing for Sweden, are also taking aim at a national idiosyncrasy: In the song “Bara Bada Bastu,” they poke fun at the Finns’ love of saunas. So far, this folk-pop composition, leaning more towards the folk end of the spectrum, is the bookies’ absolute favorite. It could just be Sweden’s eighth win in this competition, which would be a record.
Erika Vikman, also from Finland, sings the bombastic “Ich komme,” German for “I’m coming,” which is an allusion to the sexual climax. According to reports, the Eurovision organizers asked her to make the staging, her costume and the choreography a little less sexually suggestive. Will she tone it down?
Twenty-four-year-old Miriana Conte from Malta, on the other hand, had to change the title of her R&B-style song: The original title, “Kant,” which means “singing” in Maltese, is a vulgar term for the female sexual organ in English — albeit spelled differently. The British broadcaster BBC complained that “Serving Kant” was in bad taste for a family show. And so the song is now only called “Serving,” with the word “Kant” no longer appearing.
The bookmakers’ odds have Miriana Conte, Erika Vikman and Tommy Cash maintaining their places among the top 10 favorites ahead of the Eurovision final. But they give the best chances of success to the ballads “Maman” by French singer Louane and “New Day Will Rise” by Israeli singer Yuval Raphael, as well as the pop aria “Wasted Love,” performed by the countertenor JJ, representing Austria.
Eurovision trends in Basel
Germany is hoping the electro-pop composition “Baller” by the duo Abor & Tynna, aka siblings Attila and Tünde Bornemisza from Vienna, will be a success.
Germany’s transnational cooperation with Austrians reflects a broader Eurovision trend this year: Finns are competing for Sweden, a Norwegian for Ireland, a Slovakian for the Czech Republic and an Italian for San Marino — with the title “Tutta l’Italia” (“All of Italy”).
Another special feature of this year’s competition is the number of songs that are not or only partially performed in English: More than half of the 37 songs are in other languages.
This article was originally written in German.
