The 2024 edition has become the Eurovision of chaos, a few hours before the final of the festival is held in Malmö. “We are analyzing an incident that has been reported to us and that involves the Dutch artist Joost Klein,” explained the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), without giving further details, in a statement shared on Friday afternoon. According to the SVT (the Swedish public broadcaster), the Malmö Police are investigating what happened.
The organization of the contest has not yet decided (as of Friday night) whether to disqualify the theme interpreter Europapa, until now positioned as one of the favorites for the final victory, according to the betting houses. Discussions continue between the organization and Dutch television AVROTROS. Meanwhile, in Friday night’s rehearsal it was decided to use Klein’s performance in the previous day’s semifinal, broadcast in Spain on TVE’s La 1.
Until that moment, the main focus of attention was on Israel’s controversial participation. A few minutes before the second semi-final of Eurovision 2024 began, on Thursday night, flags of different colors and sizes piled up in the hands of the staff of the highly reinforced security at the Malmö Arena. The European Song Festival prohibits access to the Swedish venue with banners that are not exclusively those of the 37 countries that have participated in this edition. And it will do so in its rarefied finale this Saturday. As an exception, it has added two other badges that represent the LGTBI+ community.
“We also take away those of the European Union,” one of the guards told a spectator who had not asked for explanations, just before entering that second semi-final. At that moment, he was taking from her hands a printed sheet with the Palestinian flag, which announced through a link the demonstrations scheduled during these days in the city center to protest Israel’s participation in the contest for its role. in the Gaza war. Since October, its occupation troops have killed more than 34,943 Palestinians, compared to nearly 1,400 Israelis. killed during the conflict and the October attack.
At almost all entrances to the interior of the stadium, workers have, as a cheat sheet, a laminated sheet that compiles the permitted flags, including that of Israel. And, indeed, in the confiscated corner there are huge blue fabrics with 12 yellow stars. Although the measure is not new, the special attention that the organization is paying this year to ensuring compliance with the rule does not escape any Eurofan. Without going any further, the icon of the European Union was not banned in Liverpool last year.
Eurovision has always maintained a policy of symbols that, as it has been saying for years, does not focus on vetoing territories, but on avoiding their political use. In 2016, the festival had to apologize for having included ikurriña on its blacklist just before the edition held precisely in Sweden. The protests of the Spanish and Basque governments made him rectify and stop mentioning it among his selection of prohibited symbols. But the festival took the opportunity to remember that, in the same way, access to the interior of the Stockholm venue was not permitted, nor were the rest of the “local, regional or provincial” flags, explained those responsible at that time.
More tension in the stadium than in the streets
Although the atmosphere on the streets of Malmö in recent days is not as festive as it was in other recent Eurovision venues, it is not excessively tense either. The venue that hosts the 68th edition of the contest during these first days of May is located three kilometers away from the historic Stortorget square and the city’s Town Hall. It is there where most of the rallies in favor of the Palestinian people have taken place.
The Swedish activist Greta Thunberg He was among those attending the Thursday afternoon demonstration, which was attended by, according to official estimates by the country’s police, more than 12,000 participants. That figure is exactly the capacity of the Malmö Arena, which the Protestants barely approach. “We prefer to respect the space [de la audiencia eurovisiva] and, furthermore, Stortorget is where we have been concentrated for the last seven months, not only during these days,” a Swedish citizen of Palestinian descent who was returning from that demonstration recalled to this newspaper on Thursday afternoon, just before getting on the train that was taking him back to his house, on the outskirts of the city.
“If Israel reaches the final, we will return this Saturday at the same time, three in the afternoon,” he announced shortly before the country’s representative, twenty-something Eden Golan, qualified on Thursday thanks to televoting with the topic Hurricane. In fact, after her performance, the young woman rose to second place in the official bets that order the favorites to win. A few hours before the final, Hurricane It is only behind Rim Tim Tagi Dim, the Croatian song Baby Lasagna. Both candidates are much more prominent than other countries at the top of the list, such as Switzerland, France, Ukraine, Ireland and Italy. [A medida que pasan los días, España aumenta sus opciones de quedar en mejor puesto que su antecesora Blanca Paloma, que quedó en el 17].
The Jewish State issued an order earlier this week warning its citizens of the moderate threat level of possible attacks. He also advised against traveling to Malmö, considering it “a focus of anti-Israel protests.” Days before, a delegation led by Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security service, had traveled to the Swedish city to monitor the situation in the face of possible threats, according to several Israeli media reports at the time.
Where there is real tension inside the stadium that hosts the festival and in the adjacent buildings. Eurofans critical of the decision not to veto Israel’s participation, as was done with Russia in 2022 after its invasion of Ukraine, booed this Thursday from the stands when the presenters of the Swedish event, comedian Petra Mede and actress Malin Ackerman , announced Golan’s pass to the final gala. His disapproval did not erase the applause of a large part of the audience. Both reactions coexisted, reflecting the somewhat vitiated atmosphere of this edition.
The festival, which counts among its main sponsors a company whose parent company is located in Israel, the cosmetics brand Moroccanoil, staged a tug-of-war with Israel by rejecting two of the country’s proposals to participate in Eurovision 2024 in recent months. The first of them, October Rain, for alluding in his lyrics to soldiers and the Hamas attack on October 7. And the second, Dance Forever, considering that there was also political content in it. The truth is Hurricane reaches Saturday’s final with popular international support: televoting is the only one possible in the semifinals.
The press conference after the second qualifying round, held early on Friday, was clearly tense. The Israeli representative had to answer a question from a journalist who questioned whether her presence put other participants and the public at “risk and danger.” Faced with this question, the moderator of the meeting pointed out to Golan that, if he did not want to, he did not have to answer it. “Why not?” Joost Klein then intervened out loud, an episode that quickly went viral on the networks. Golan simply responded that the festival “is safe for everyone. If not, we would not be here,” in response to the gestures of discomfort, and even disapproval, of some of his stage colleagues. “All countries in the world deserve to be free,” said the Latvian singer Dons in that same forum, to the applause of the journalists present. Even in the press room, awkward moments have occurred between some of the Israeli accredited officials and several members of the international delegations and press.
In the previous weeks, 10 of the 37 participating artists published a joint statement calling for an “immediate ceasefire in the occupied Palestinian territories, particularly in Gaza,” as they “did not feel comfortable” remaining silent. “It is important for us to show solidarity with the oppressed and communicate our heartfelt desire for peace and an immediate ceasefire and the safe return of the hostages,” noted the participants from the United Kingdom, San Marino (the Spanish Megara), Switzerland and Lithuania, among others.
The Protestants who gather peacefully in Malmö do so even using irony. They organize for this Saturday the Falastinvision, an alternative “genocidal-free” festival. Its intention is to question before the European song contest and international public opinion whether being apolitical is synonymous with being amoral.
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