Eurovision - was the jury vote impacted by politics?

I didn't watch it but the Jury is absolutely always political. Germany votes for Türkiye, Türkiye votes for Germany etc. One of the many reasons I stopped watching.

I just can't fathom how anyone who is siding with those people booing her, abusing her and even trying to storm the stage to attack her can possibly think that they're the good guys?!

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp92zjejzvyo

Backstory.

It’s certainly not rocket science. Maybe those who voted for Israel liked the song, the meaning and the amazing voice of the singer.

Have you even listened to the song?

She only became a professional singer in 2023 and shortly afterwards suffered the horrific trauma of experiencing a terrifying terrorist attack at a music festival at age 22, having to hide under the dead bodies of other young people, who had just been enjoying themselves with her, for hours and very likely suffers from PTSD, but she still got on stage at another music festival just a year and half later and performed extremely well knowing that there were protests against her participation making her security a massive risk, booing from the crowds, and people even tried to storm the stage obviously to try to do something to her!

None of the other participants went through that. She is amazing IMO.

Do think she’s a disgrace to humanity because she represented her country, who were invaded and attacked in one of the worst terrorist attacks on record (which she was also involved in) for participating?

If she was from any other country in the same circumstances, the reaction on here would be very different and the consensus would be that she thoroughly deserved her win.

Palestinians sadly chose their cause of trying to destroy Israel and kill Jews over having their own country (and potentially being able to enter the Eurovision but would they want to?) and are in a war that was deliberately started by their leaders, with the full support of a majority of adults who voted them in and still support them, knowing the consequences to their own people.

Thats not rocket science either.

Well I think the Moroccan Oil contract is up.for renewal this year so depends how that goes.

There's all kinds of everything going on at ESC.
Everybody was making their minds up whether to feel empathy for the Israel artist or hostility for what Israel is doing to Gaza.
In my eyes it's always been a political contest. Nothing happens in isolation, if you believe it does that's simply a European fairytale.
Malta vote for the UK due to World War 2 or Turkey don't vote for Greece and vice versa due to the Cyprus issue.

I wanna enjoy it as international artists coming together to sing a song. We don't know anyone's ideology. We just know the UK is hugely unlikely to win.

Yes Britain is influenced by America and lots of our shows now also cover the contestants back story so it does appeal to our audiences too.

Not really hard to understand when you put it like that. Who needs a statistician to explain.

Because they are influenced by American tropes. The exploration of the 'backstory' is on steroids in American TV shows - what's done in the UK pales by comparison. And no show is immune, from the Olympics to cooking competitions.

I don't think that this is rocket science. If you like Israel you are going to vote for Israel. If you think Israels actions are a disgrace to humanity you will either boycott or vote for any of the other I don't know how many acts so those votes are spread out.

Palestinians don't get to have their own country and self determination so they don't get to enter fun little singing and dancing competitions, they are too busy dodging bombs, living under apartheid and trying not to get raped at Israeli checkpoints so it's not like it's was a vote for Palestine vs vote for Israel thing.

Why do UK shows like the X factor always explore back stories then?

@mids2019

I seriously doubt a backstory appeals to Europeans as much as you think it does.

That's very much an American cultural thing.

Are you British and based in Britain?

The themes you touch on in your posts here suggest otherwise.

I am in the US and follow several Holocaust education sites online.

For the last two weeks I've seen several ads every day I go on SM (various platforms) urging me to vote for Israel's entry.

Frankly, I've never seen anything like this before, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.

So if your question is about politics influencing the voting, and if you want an evidence based answer, I'd have to say - wait until I see a breakdown of where the public votes came from around the world.

I'd also like to see who paid for the ads I was seeing and how much was paid.

Yes. Something that Hamas could potentially stop by not blocking aid, by scrapping the Hamas charter, by releasing all hostages etc.
If Hamas actually were a diplomatic government people would view Israel as the enemy. You know, like people err towards Ukraine as the good guys regardless of the nitty gritty politics. Good v bad.
If Hamas actually had the welfare of it’s citizens at heart it would be something to support, unfortunately Hamas don’t seem to give a shit.

If he hadn't mentioned the controversy, I'd agree. Wouldn't have been shameful to leave out that she survived a pogrom then. But if you're going to talk about issues beyond the music, as Graham did, then the BBC coverage shouldn't cherry pick. It needs to be one or the other.

I think so too. And the list of countries that supported her was good to see.

You are right that most of us will see this as external bystanders. But if you see this from the outside - it’s pretty clear the situation in Gaza is increasingly untenable and it’s one group of people who are particularly suffering.

I don’t think obeying international law with regard to conduct of war should be a luxury.

Going back to purpose of thread, I can see why people who support Israel get out and vote for them in Eurovision when they feel the butt of such negativity towards Israel.

That's your interpretation. Joan Donoghue ICJ president at the time of the ruling rebutted this interpretation.
I have many thoughts about the situation in Gaza and the conduct of soldiers. It is a luxury for those not on the battlefield to second guess those that are. I have compassion for innocents on both sides.

What a brave young lady singing a great song, well done her.

However she won the public vote because The Silent Majority had a way to speak in voting which they can’t do in real life without threat to them or those they care about. What a world we live in.

I don’t agree. And I don’t see unequivocal support for every single action the Israeli government or the IDF take.

I seriously suggest that you read up a little on the history of the persecution of Jews, and learn about antisemitism. It may make no difference at all to your views on the current conflict, but you’d be more conscious of the context of some very tenacious ideas and themes around Israel and Jewish people.

I also don’t believe claims of famine and starvation. The same claims were made a year ago then the supporters had to quieten down when we all saw with our own eyes completely well-fed men with guns harassing hostages during the release phase. I’m not going to be tricked a second time.

Whilst there’s no denying this young woman has been through a terrible ordeal, I don’t think it’s shameful that it wasn’t mentioned. This is a song contest. The points should be awarded for the song, nothing else.

But regardless, Eurovision has always been political so the points handed out are always a pharce. The judges votes (based on the merit of the song) saw many countries (such as the UK) doing well. As soon as the audience vote is taken into account it’s ‘nil point’ to the countries that are hated (the UK!) and lots of points to the ‘popular’ countries, which was Ukraine a couple of years ago and now Israel. Both for obvious reasons. But let’s not pretend the points reflected what anyone thought about the songs.