Ok, so yesterday was our yearly escape to the wonderful world of the Eurovision Song Contest! After Loreen won last year’s contest with the song ‘Tattoo’ Sweden would be the host country, which also happened to be the 50th anniversary of ABBA winning the contest (not saying it’s rigged but…) ?
However, the contest was met with controversy right from the very beginning. Russia would not be allowed to enter again this year; previous reports were that it was due to the invasion of Ukraine but the new story that is going around is because they keep cutting anything relating to the LGBTQ+ community from the show – what do you guys believe?
The next thing was that even though Israel were allowed to perform in the competition, due to the boos and the shouts of ‘Free Palestine’ when they were performing, fake cheering and clapping was used to drown this out.
Bambie Thug, who was the entry for Ireland and finished in a very respectable sixth place, has now put in a complaint against the commentator for Israel. Apparently he was suggesting that it was ‘too scary for kids,’ that they should be ‘preparing their curses’ and there would be demons, witches and satanic materials used in the song. Yes, their performance was a lot different to many others but it’s not unlike Lordi (men dressed as monsters) and it was a metal performance so many artists like them would be extremely theatrical.
Moving on, the Netherlands were disqualified from the final due to an incident that apparently happened backstage on the semi final night, after the flag parade had taken place. Now, there’s a possibility that the incident involved Bambie Thug as they also commented saying that due to an incident that happened they had complained to the EBU and urged them to investigate (but then that could also tie in with the commentator for Israel). On the other hand, the Netherlands have said it was due to a disagreement with a female member of staff. I’m thinking it’s more than likely the second point – however, they’re complaining it was a harsh penalty; release ALL of the details as to what actually happened and let us decide whether it was harsh or not.
Finally, United Kingdom received ‘nil point’ from the public vote – I don’t know why I’m surprised though because, as much as we all moan that it has turned political, we have not had any strong entries represent us up until Sam Ryder represented us. On one hand, I can understand why they chose Olly Alexander to represent us – frontman for Years and Years, a large following, good performer…only difference? Sam went and did a promo tour all over the world, he was drumming up the support wherever he went, the song was a very strong entry and he is an extremely likeable guy! It was a shame for Olly but at least we got a few points and we didn’t finish with ‘nil point’ overall.
I feel like we need to step back now and look at where everything is going wrong – back to the drawing board and maybe look at getting someone like Sam to represent us next year.
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