Eurovision 2024 will be remembered as one of the most controversial festivals in history. A few months ago, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) confirmed Israel’s participation, something that shocked the millions of fans of the format around the planet.
Just a few years earlier, Russia was forced to leave the competition (it was expelled) due to its military action against Ukraine. This performance by the organization of the contest was highly applauded by the followers, which is why they expected it to be repeated against Netanyahu’s territory.
However, as we have seen, the vast majority of countries and their governments have not shown a clear position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and have not exerted pressure to stop the Israeli candidacy in the song festival.
Yesterday, during the broadcast of the first semi-final, Eurovision decided to open the gala with a performance by three great artists: Eleni Foureira (representative of Cyprus in 2018), Chanel (representative of Spain in 2022) and Eric Saade (representative of Sweden in 2011). ). Although the shows were highly applauded on social networks, Saade decided to sing with a Palestinian scarf (kufiya) tied to his arm, a gesture that caught the attention of all the show’s viewers.
The action of the Swede of Palestinian origin caused a whirlwind of news internationally and placed the discussion of the conflict on the front line of the media. For its part, the EBU spoke out and expressed being very disappointed with the young man’s attitude. In addition, the organization censored his actions on the pageant’s official social networks.
After a few hours of nerves, emotions and controversies, the singer uploaded a story to his official Instagram account in which he revealed that he does not regret what he did and that he is proud to support the Palestinian people on such a big stage. like Eurovision.
”Reminder: it’s just love. United by the music,” the performer has written on a black background, ironically quoting the official slogan of this edition United by the music.
In a message to the Swedish media SVT News, the 33-year-old explained that the shawl he wore on stage is a gift that his father gave him as a child so he would never forget where his family comes from.
”(…) I just wanted to be inclusive and wear something authentic to me, but the EBU seems to find my ethnicity controversial. It doesn’t say anything about me, but it says everything about them (…)” explained the young man, visibly upset with the organization’s treatment.
