Eurovision | Yle director about Eurovision: The atmosphere was bad, there were too many arguments

Eurovision reputation took a bad hit this year. The participation of Israel, which is at war in Gaza, led to protests, and many artists who participated in the competition also questioned the actions of EBU, the European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the games.

Competition winner, Switzerland Nemo said after his victory that “Eurovision needs a bit of fixing”.

In particular, Ebu has received criticism because it did not participate in the discussion but appealed to the “non-politicization” of the Games.

Finland’s representative to the Games is sent by Yle, which, like the other participating countries, accepted Ebu’s decision to include Israel.

HS asked Yle’s director of creative content and media From Ville Vilén interview. Vilén declined, citing his busy schedule, but responded by email.

He admits that this year’s Eurovision final did not go without problems.

“Atmosphere it was bad on the spot and there were too many different fights,” Vilén writes.

According to him, many participating countries are worried about the safety of the games and expect measures from Ebu to restore the original atmosphere to the games.

Vilén also reminds that although Israel’s participation was strongly criticized in Finland and many other countries, there are also many countries in Europe where this was not done. Israel received a lot of public votes from different parts of Europe.

“Eurovision is a competition and a business owned by Ebu. Participation in the competition is voluntary,” he commented.

“However, Ebu decides with its own rules who can participate. Now they decided this, and everyone who came there accepted it.”

This one in the year’s finale, the artists became substitute sufferers.

Dutch representative Joost Klein avoided being photographed with the representative of Israel and was disqualified from the final because he allegedly behaved threateningly towards the cameraman. According to the Dutch public broadcasting company, Klein did not even touch the camera.

At the press conference after Thursday’s semi-final from the representative of Israel Eden from the Golan was asked if he had thought that his participation might pose a safety risk to other performers.

When the organizer of the event told Golan that he didn’t have to answer the question, Klein had asked why not.

In March The representatives of Finland and eight other countries published a statement in which they expressed their concern about Israel’s military actions in Gaza and condemned anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

The artists drew criticism from both Israeli and Palestinian advocates. Eden Golan was also reported to have received death threats on social media.

Ville Vilén admits that the reactions evoked by this year’s competition can affect the artists. Also Windows95 man or Teemu Keisteri received pressure on social media because of Israel’s participation.

At the time of the final itself, Keisteri no longer wanted to participate in the Israel debate. The UMK representative selection competition has been a great success for Yle in recent years, which has also boosted the artists’ success and where there has been no need to think about political conflicts.

According to Vilén, Ebu’s future decisions will also affect UMK’s appeal.

“I hope that the solutions are such that as many people as possible can participate in UMK in the future as well.”