Eurovison winner calls for Israel to be banned from next song contest
JJ, the Austrian singer who won the competition in Switzerland with his song Wasted Love, said the country should not perform amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
The 24-year-old operatic singer, whose real name is Johannes Pietsch, told the Spanish newspaper El Pais: 'It is very disappointing to see Israel still participating in the contest.
'I would like the next Eurovision to be held in Vienna and without Israel.'
It comes as the competition, supposed to be apolitical, faced another year of controversy over Israel's involvement given the continuing military campaign in neighbouring Gaza.
Israel's Eurovision contestant, Yuval Raphael, finished in second place after securing a large margin of the public vote.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organiser of the contest, has been facing accusations of voter manipulation in favour of Israel from various national broadcasters, including the Spanish and Belgian representatives.
Elsewhere, Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish prime minister, also called for Israel's exclusion from competing in the future.
Ms Raphael, 24, a survivor of the Hamas assault on the Nova music festival on Oct 7 2023, was disrupted in her final performance in Basel by pro-Palestinian protesters who tried to storm the stage.
She ended up scoring 357 points for her song New Day Will Rise after admitting that she had prepared to perform with booing onstage following similar treatment of Eden Golan, the Israeli contestant last year.
Credit: Youth Demand
Her result has caused increased scrutiny of the Eurovision voting system, in which entrants receive points from a professional jury from each country, as well as from a public vote. The maximum amount of points from any country's jury or the public is 12.
Many countries awarded Israel the maximum 'douze points' for the public vote, despite their professional juries giving the country zero points. Viewers at home can vote up to 20 times for a small cost charged to each vote by text or phone call.
Austria's JJ said the vote-counting system should be revised to improve transparency, echoing calls from various broadcasters to the EBU.
Katia Segers, a Flemish parliamentarian, said: 'A system in which everyone can cast up to 20 votes is a system that encourages manipulation. Whether this manipulation occurred in our country and all other participating and non-participating countries must be investigated.'
In response to the claims, Martin Green, the director of Eurovision, said: 'It is important to emphasise that the voting operation for the Eurovision Song Contest is the most advanced in the world and each country's result is checked and verified by a huge team of people to exclude any suspicious or irregular voting patterns.
'An independent compliance monitor reviews both jury and public vote data to ensure we have a valid result.'
He added: 'We remain in constant contact with all participating broadcasters of the Eurovision Song Contest and take their concerns seriously.'
JJ's remarks followed protests calling for a boycott of the competition as well as an open letter published a week before the contest, which featured more than 70 previous Eurovision contestants calling on the organisers to ban Israel and its broadcaster KAN.
During last Saturday's grand finale, the Spanish broadcaster RTVE also came under fire after it took a stand against Israel's inclusion.
For 16 seconds, Spanish viewers saw a black screen with white lettering in Spanish and English that read: 'When human rights are at stake, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine.'
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