The Eurovision Song Contest is one of the most media events of the year. Not only on a musical level, where the member countries of the EBU compete to win the crystal microphone, but also in terms of interactions and global connectivity. The entire planet is watching the performances and everything that is going on in the previous days and months. A situation that is escalating in tension due to Israel’s participation.
However, another country has just come under the spotlight of controversy, although it does so for very different reasons. In this case it is France, after its representative in last year’s edition has uncovered some controversial conversations regarding its appearance. La Zarra, who performed Evidemment in Liverpool, has denounced the out of place requests that French public television sent him.
“The head of delegation, Alexandra, spoke with me, she was very passionate and I thought that what was presented to me was incredible and was a beautiful platform to explore the artistic aspects of La Zarra and that is why I accepted. From September to May is when I understood that she was going to be a slave to France Télévisions, it was very hard. She was brunette when they looked for me, but I absolutely had to be La Zarra, blonde, Marilyn Monroe… So the pressure was maximum,” she explained.
“Then I got a call during the night from the head of delegation, who was totally pissed. If this goes ahead we’ll have to have pictures of you with blonde hair, so you’ll have to bleach your hair this week because you’re Arab and brown hair makes you look too Arab. When you’re blonde you look less Arab. You have to smile at the camera, don’t say you’re Canadian, don’t say you’re Moroccan… You’re French,” she said.
La Zarra is the name and artistic person of Fatima-Zahra Hafdi, born in Montreal to Moroccan parents. As she explained in this interview for Siham TV, the French delegation saw her cultural heritage as an impediment to her, so they tried to force a more national image on her. This discovery adds to her tumultuous journey to Liverpool, where she skipped a previous event in Amsterdam and nearly walked out on the festival.
They have not been the only notable statements from La Zarra about Eurovision in recent days. The singer denounced and called for a boycott of Israel at the event to be held this year in Malmö: “However, the public has the power to move mountains if they want. The audience I met is full of love and strength, that is why I am addressing you. Let us ban Israel from participating in this contest, just as Russia was excluded for the atrocities it commits.”
