Paul Weller, Massive Attack, and Kneecap lead calls for Eurovision boycott over Israel’s inclusion
Paul Weller, Massive Attack and Kneecap are among the heavy-hitting names to have called for a boycott of Eurovision.
The 70th Eurovision Song Contest is set to take place in Vienna in May. As it stands, the competition will include Israel as a participant, with the boycott calling for Israel’s public broadcaster KAN to be banned.
Signatories of the open letter supporting the boycott from No Music For Genocide include Brian Eno, Massive Attack, Paloma Faith, Paul Weller, Kneecap, Hot Chip, Of Monsters and Men, IDLES, Primal Scream, Sigur Rós, Young Fathers, Mogwai, Black Country New Road, Erika de Casier, Nadine Shah, and Dry Cleaning.
Roger Waters, Ólafur Arnalds, David Holmes, Nemahsis, Macklemore, Peter Gabriel, Salute, Vacations, Smerz, Mechatok, and The Knife’s Olof Dreijer have also signed the open letter.
The open letter begins, “This May, millions of people are expected to tune in to the 70th Eurovision Song Contest. For the third consecutive year, they’ll find Israel celebrated onstage despite its ongoing genocide in Gaza, while Russia remains banned for its illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
No Music For Genocide then accused Eurovision of being used as a tool “to whitewash and normalise Israel’s genocide, siege and brutal military occupation against Palestinian”.
The letter adds, “We stand in solidarity with Palestinian calls for public broadcasters, performers, screening party organisers, crew, and fans to boycott Eurovision until the EBU bans complicit Israeli broadcaster KAN.”
Notably, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, Iceland and the Netherlands will not be participating in Eurovision due to Israel’s inclusion in the competition, which the open letter described as “principled withdrawals”.
It also accused Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, of having “played a leading role in lobbying broadcasters not to ban Israel from the contest”.
The open letter labelled Eurovision’s contrasting treatment of Israel and Russia as “hypocritical”, which they believe have “removed any illusion of Eurovision’s claimed ‘neutrality'”.
It concluded, “As artists, we recognise our collective agency – and the power of refusal. We refuse to be silent. We refuse to be complicit. We call on others in our industry to join us. And we stand in solidarity with all principled efforts to end complicity in every industry.”
The full letter is available to read and sign here.
Eurovision will take place on May 16th, at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria. The UK’s entrant is Look Mum No Computer.
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