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One of the biggest fallacies about major cultural and sporting events is that they cannot nor should not be political.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises the Eurovision Song Contest, has repeatedly insisted that the competition is purely a cultural event and has no place for politics. Its rules state that political statements or even slogans are not allowed.

But the event “has always been politically charged”, said Bloomberg, “and this year perhaps more so than ever”.

Ahead of Saturday’s Eurovision grand finale, 100,000 visitors are expected to descend on Malmo in Sweden. The host city has a sizeable Muslim minority and many of those heading there will be taking part in protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. Organisers say the demonstrations are intended to be peaceful.

Meanwhile, the song contest itself has for months been “on the defensive about Israel’s participation”, said Bloomberg. 

Janne Heltberg, a Norwegian actor and one of the initiators of EurovisiOFF, a campaign calling for a Eurovision boycott, has argued that just as Russia was swiftly banned after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Israel should now be disqualified.

This “almost happened” earlier this year, said DW, “but not as a direct reaction to the boycott calls”. According to the EBU, the original title of the Israeli entry, “October Rain”, by 20-year-old Eden Golan was too reminiscent of the 7 October Hamas attacks that killed 1,200 people and saw hundreds more taken hostage.

Despite calls to exclude Israel from the competition, in the end the title was changed, and Golan was allowed to participate.

While a majority of people asked by YouGov said Israel should not be allowed to compete, “the reasons why are often geographical rather than political”, said the polling firm. Those who actually intend to watch Eurovision were slightly more likely to say that Israel should be allowed in than not.

Far from its stated reputation as a strictly “non-political event”, wrote Jacqui Housden on the i news site, over the past 50 years Eurovision’s stage has been a “hotbed of controversies and political statements, from calls to recognise genocide, to hidden messages on referendums and more obvious messages about the Russian leader”.

In just the last 20 years, Georgia was excluded in 2009 following Russia’s invasion for the song “We Don’t Wanna Put In”. Belarus was kicked out in 2021 after the contested re-election of authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko, which precipitated a national crackdown on political opposition, while Russia was excluded in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine, which went on to win the competition by a landslide.

Israel has been participating in Eurovision for over half a century, “so it’s not the first time the Middle East conflict has come into the spotlight at the event”, said DW.

In 1973, Israeli singer Ilanit performed amid tight security. In the wake of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists, the singer was forced to wear a protective vest, audience members were not allowed to stand and photographers had to take pictures of the ceiling “to prove that their cameras were not camouflaged firearms”.

What next?

Fast forward to the present day and “several prominent, artist-led campaigns argue that recent decisions to exclude Russia and Belarus set a precedent, and that Israel should be banned for human-rights violations”, said The New York Times.

“Eurovision officials reject those comparisons,” said the paper, “but when Golan performs in Malmo, it seems certain that many voters will be thinking about more than just her singing.”

There has certainly been “intense debate in the run-up to the competition about the dividing lines between music, art and politics”, said Politico. But at least when it comes to the event itself host country Sweden is the “archetypal safe pair of hands for Eurovision”.