More than 70 former Eurovision contestants have reportedly signed an open letter urging organizers to ban Israel and its national broadcaster, Kan, from this year’s competition.
In a letter addressed to the European Broadcasting Union, participants such as British musician Mae Muller, Ireland’s 1994 winner Charlie McGettigan, as well as Portuguese singer Fernando Tordo called for Israel’s exclusion over the country’s “genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and the decades-long regime of apartheid and military occupation against the entire Palestinian people.”
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The letter refers to the ongoing war in the region that has so far claimed the lives of over 50,000 Gazans, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Decades-spanning tensions escalated when the Hamas militant group launched an armed incursion on an Israeli music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 people.
Israel’s continued air strikes on Gaza were the source of rife controversy at last year’s Eurovision Song Contest, held in Sweden, which the letter says led to “the most politicized, chaotic and unpleasant in the competition’s history.”
After various fallouts and uproar among delegates and viewers, Israel’s Eden Golan finished fifth in the 2024 competition. Over 56,000 people had signed a similar petition calling for Israel’s ban from that year, while elsewhere, Iceland’s Association of Composers and Lyricists and 1,400 industry professionals across Europe also called for Golan to be suspended.
In 2025, the final of the beloved and zany singing competition takes place in Basel, Switzerland on May 17, where Israeli entrant Yuval Raphael is set to perform the track “New Day Will Rise”.
But the signatories have accused broadcaster Kan of being “complicit” in the war. Israel has repeatedly denied that its attacks amount to genocide, and court proceedings at the United Nation’s top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), are ongoing.
“The EBU has already demonstrated that it is capable of taking measures, as in 2022, when it expelled Russia from the competition. We don’t accept this double standard regarding Israel,” the letter continues. Thea Garrett, 2010 contestant for Malta, said: “[It] can’t be one rule for Russia and a completely different rule for Israel. You bomb, you’re out.”
The musicians said: “As singers, songwriters, musicians and others who have had the privilege of participating in Eurovision, we urge the EBU and all its member broadcasters to act now and prevent further discredit and disruption to the festival: Israel must be excluded from Eurovision.”
The EBU said in a statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter that the team “understands the concerns and deeply held views around the current conflict in the Middle East.”
“The EBU is not immune to global events but, together, with our Members, it is our role to ensure the Contest remains — at its heart — a universal event that promotes connections, diversity and inclusion through music. We all aspire to keep the Eurovision Song Contest positive and celebratory and aspire to show the world as it could be, rather than how it necessarily is.”
The statement continued: “As a reminder, the EBU is an association of public service broadcasters, not governments, who are all eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest every year if they meet the requisite requirements. It is not our role to make comparisons between conflicts. As part of its mission to secure a sustainable future for public service media, the EBU is supporting Israeli Member Kan against the threat from being privatized or shut down by the Israeli government. The EBU remains aligned with other international organizations that have similarly maintained their inclusive stance towards Israeli participants in major competitions at this time.”
THR also reached out to Kan for comment.
During Eurovision 2024, members of the U.S. entertainment industry banded together to endorse an open letter advocating for Israel’s inclusion in the contest. Facilitated by the group Creative Community for Peace, it was signed by the likes of Helen Mirren, Liev Schreiber, Gene Simmons, Sharon Osbourne, Diane Warren, Scooter Braun, Boy George, Mayim Bialik, Haim Saban, Julianna Margulies and Debra Messing, among hundreds more.
The EBU could once again face a mass boycott. On Tuesday, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and Israeli musician Dudu Tassa were forced to cancel two U.K. performances over pro-Palestine boycotts and threats linked to protests. “Intimidating venues into pulling our shows won’t help achieve the peace and justice everyone in the Middle East deserves,” the duo said in response.
Elsewhere, Irish rap trio Kneecap, subject of the BAFTA-winning “print the legend” biopic of the same name, have also drawn criticism. Last month, the band managed to get the U.S.’s Coachella crowd chanting “Free Palestine” during their set, and a call for the deaths of Tory MPs in the U.K. plunged them further into controversy. Counter-terrorism police in the U.K. are even investigating the band.
