{"id":48597,"date":"2024-05-11T22:21:05","date_gmt":"2024-05-11T22:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/11\/protests-and-an-expulsion-the-controversy-and-chaos-in-malmo-ahead-of-this-years-eurovision-song-contest\/"},"modified":"2024-05-11T22:21:05","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T22:21:05","slug":"protests-and-an-expulsion-the-controversy-and-chaos-in-malmo-ahead-of-this-years-eurovision-song-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/11\/protests-and-an-expulsion-the-controversy-and-chaos-in-malmo-ahead-of-this-years-eurovision-song-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Protests and an expulsion: The controversy and chaos in Malmo ahead of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Consistently billed by organisers as non-political, this year’s Eurovision Song Contest had become mired in controversy before the first act even took to stage<\/p>\n

As thousands protest against Israel’s inclusion while its war in Gaza continues – despite international calls for restraint – organisers resisted pressure to exclude Israel.<\/p>\n

While Israeli artist Eden Golan was asked to change lyrics organisers felt referred to Hamas’s deadly 7 October attacks, large protests have continued in Swedish host city Malmo throughout this week.<\/p>\n

Follow live: Eurovision 2024 latest updates<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Waving Palestinian flags, demonstrators shouted “Eurovision united by genocide” – a twist on the contest’s official slogan “united by music”. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a><\/strong> previously dismissed genocide claims as “outrageous”.<\/p>\n

Calls to ban Israel<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ahead of Saturday’s final, between 6,000 and 8,000 people joined a demonstration, according to police estimates.<\/p>\n

Security has been ramped up in the city, which expected to welcome 100,000 Eurovision fans on top of the thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters.<\/p>\n

More than 10,000 campaigners, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, staged a non-violent protest<\/a><\/strong> ahead of the semi-final on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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Pro-Palestinian protests in Malmo<\/span>
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A smaller group of pro-Israeli supporters, including members of Malmo’s Jewish community, also staged a peaceful demonstration on Thursday, defending Golan’s right to take part in the contest.<\/p>\n

This week, former Swedish contestant Eric Saade, who is said to be of Palestinian origin, wore a keffiyeh – a traditional scarf that has become a symbol of support – tied around his wrist as he sang.<\/p>\n

Organisers at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) put out a statement expressing “regret” over Saade’s actions.<\/p>\n

Dutch act expelled<\/strong><\/p>\n

As preparations on the day got into full swing, organisers would be hit with two major blows from two of this year’s hotly-tipped performers.<\/p>\n

The first of those came from the Netherlands, with organisers announcing Dutch entry Joost Klein had been expelled from the competition<\/a><\/strong> after a complaint by a production worker.<\/p>\n

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According to Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS, Klein was filmed despite clearly made agreements, just after getting off stage after his performance at Thursday’s semi final.<\/p>\n

“This wasn’t respected,” AVROTROS said in a post on social media platform X, adding: “This led to a threatening movement from Joost towards the camera.”<\/p>\n

Klein did not touch the camerawoman, according to AVROTROS, who said it found the artist’s penalty “very heavy and disproportionate”.<\/p>\n

Irish act calls for ‘urgent attention’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Barely a few hours later, Ireland’s entry Bambie Thug missed the flag parade in the show’s final rehearsal due to a “situation” needing “urgent attention” from organisers.<\/p>\n

The singer has previously hit out at Golan competing in the contest and been outspoken about their pro-Palestinian views before becoming the first Irish qualifier since 2018<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Irish broadcaster RTE reported that the singer called on organisers to address commentary made on Israeli television before their performance in Tuesday’s semi-final.<\/p>\n

They told the broadcaster: “I’m angry with other teams breaching their rules of the EBU, and still being allowed in.<\/p>\n

“So there’s definitely a war drum sounding in my heart to push the performance even more than I have done before.”<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Bambie Thug told reporters they had been forced to change writing painted on their body ahead of the semi-final performance.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old said the painted script in Ogham – an early Medieval alphabet – had translated to “ceasefire and freedom”.<\/p>\n

‘United by love’<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Bambie Thug missed a chunk of rehearsals, another act used his practice on stage to make a statement.<\/p>\n

In an apparent reference to Eurovision’s motto, French contestant Slimane stopped mid-way through his rehearsal to say “united by music, yes, but for love, for peace”.<\/p>\n

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His chant appeared to be met with a loud round of applause in the auditorium.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Norway’s Alessandra Mele, who was scheduled to award her country’s points during the show, withdrew due to the “inflamed situation in Malmo this year”, according to broadcaster NRK.<\/p>\n

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Consistently billed by organisers as non-political, this year’s Eurovision Song Contest had become mired in controversy before the first act even took to stage As thousands protest against Israel’s inclusion while its war in Gaza continues – despite international calls for restraint – organisers resisted pressure to exclude Israel. While Israeli artist Eden Golan was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/05\/768x432\/skynews-palestine-protest-eurovision_6550783.jpg?20240511185636","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[203,5435,5822,1910,26459,49128,47897,10452,2640,111],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48597"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48599,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48597\/revisions\/48599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}