(opinion article)

The final of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest 2024 took place in Malmö, Sweden, on 11 May. Ukraine’s representatives, Alyona Alyona & Jerry Heil took 3rd place, competing with contestants from 25 countries. There had been no Russia among them since 2022, but Ukrainian Euro fans still found out the presence of the Russian narrative at the contest. The organizers declared that Eurovision was an apolitical contest, but almost every year, some of the participants in the song contest were subject to political scandals. Let’s see which of this year’s participants had any ties to Russia.

An Israeli from Russia

This year, Israel is represented by singer Eden Golan. The organizers allowed her song to enter the competition only on the third attempt. The reason for this is the song’s direct references to the events of 7 October, when militants from the Palestinian group Hamas (recognized as a terrorist group in the EU and the US) attacked Israel.

However, Ukrainian Euro fans were outraged by something else entirely. The singer and her family had lived in Russia for most of her life. Eden Golan was born in Israel and returned home two years ago, after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It was in Russia that her musical career began. In 2016, Eden Golan performed at the New Wave competition in the temporarily occupied Crimea. And in 2018, she took part in the Russian analogue of the show ‘The Voice. Children.’

“A bad joke”

The contestant representing the Netherlands, Joost Klein, had a musical collaboration with a Russian that was released at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Dutch artist recorded the song together with Russian rapper CMH (CrazyMegaHell), whose real name was Ruslan Tushentsov. The track was released on streaming platforms in March 2022. “Hello, my name is Joost Klein. I love a Russian girl. I want a Russian lady. I want Russian children,” the lyrics go.

Less than a year later, Jost Klein made another collaboration with Russian musicians. In February 2023, he released a joint album with the ‘Russian Village Boys,’ a rave band from St Petersburg.

“I am an independent artist, but this is a difficult situation. I’m like an outsider,” the artist commented on his Russophile track and called it a bad joke.

In the end, Joost Klein was disqualified from the final, although for a completely different reason: a conflict with one of the show’s cameramen.

“We’re here to make music”

Another participant in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, Isaac Guderian from Germany, said that he believed that Russia’s exclusion from the contest was unacceptable.

“I think it’s crazy. We are here to make music. And if we start to categorically exclude everyone now, there will be fewer and fewer of us. And at some point there will be no more event,” the musician said.

In his opinion, the reason for Russia’s exclusion from the competition is not armed aggression against Ukraine, but the lack of “free journalism.” He claimed that Russia did not have it, so it was excluded.

“There is free journalism in Israel, but not in Russia. In order not to support Russian propaganda, it was said that, unfortunately, we cannot allow Russia to participate. So it was decided to allow Israel to participate, but not Russia. I don’t like it either, but I can understand it,” the musician said.