Eurovision Has Banned Zelensky from Speaking. What Exactly Is “Too Political” for Eurovision?
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! And by that I mean, of course, that Eurovision season is upon us. In case you don’t know, it is a yearly competition featuring European countries and Australia battling it out over a night of cheesy, terrible music. But it’s so much more than that.
The winner of Eurovision is allocated to be the host country of the following year’s Eurovision. Last year’s winner was Ukraine, but hosting duties were postponed due to the war, and therefore the contest will now be held in Liverpool. Today, news broke that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky wished to address the audience with a video message, but the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) refused on grounds of the non-political nature of the event. But let’s face it: Eurovision has never been non-political.
The statement put out by the EBU says “one of the cornerstones of the Contest is the non-political nature of the event. This principle prohibits the possibility of making political or similar statements as part of the Contest.” The decision of depoliticizing Eurovision was made in 2005, and Eurovision expert and academic Dean Vuletic provided an explanation of the reasoning of the EBU: “They don’t want to scare away advertisers. If you start getting songs that are…
