Petition to stop BBC broadcasting Eurovision song that glamorises sexual strangulation (before the watershed!)

[DreamyHedgehog]

Someone has created a change.org petition calling on The BBC and The EBU to not broadcast “Choke Me”, a song competing at Eurovision this year which glamorises sexual strangulation - unless the lyrics are changed.

The song is due to be broadcast on May 14th shortly after 8pm on BBC One - before the watershed.

I’ve just signed, sharing here in case anyone else wants to sign and share too.

https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-bbc-airing-eurovision-content-that-normalises-violence-against-women

These are the full lyrics to the song:

Phantom
You feel like a phantom
Why do you wanna tame me?
It's hard to breathe in
Do you feel me?
Do what I say
And don't you ever betray me
You are here to obey me
Are you not?
All I need is your love
I want it to choke me, choke me, choke me
Born for you to control
I want you to choke me
Ch-ch-ch-choke me
Ch-ch-ch-choke me
Love me, make my lungs explode like oh oh oh…
All I need is your love
I want it to choke me
Ch-ch-ch-choke me
Ch-ch-ch-choke me
Choke me
Choke me
Choke me
Save me
Inside I'm blazin'
I want you to call me, call me, call me
Call, my body is begging
Do what I say
And don't you ever betray me
You are here to obey me
Are you not?
All I need is your love
I want it to choke me, choke me, choke me
Born for you to control
I want you to choke me
Ch-ch-ch-choke me
Ch-ch-ch-choke me
Love me, make my lungs explode like oh oh oh…
All I need is your love
I want it to choke me
Ch-ch-ch-choke me
Ch-ch-ch-choke me
All I need is your love
I want it to choke me, choke me, choke me
Born for you to control
I want you to choke me
Ch-ch-ch-choke me
Ch-ch-ch-choke me
Love me, make my lungs explode like oh oh oh…
All I need iѕ your love
I wаnt it to choke me
Ch-ch-ch-choke me
Ch-ch-ch-choke me

Thats horrific, I’m lost for words on the number of ways that such lyrics are so wrong and damaging.
Signed & shared on sm.
I hope it gets some traction & that this awful entry is stopped.

Thank you for your work on this. I've signed the petition, but the other two links didn't work for me. The Medium link did work when I deleted the last bit, leaving this: https://medium.com/@support2report
I haven't been able to find the YouTube video, but I did find this one from ITV news, which is also good: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/KdqrWPZ7WTU

Thank you! The YouTube video is age restricted (we applied that restriction just because this mentions strangulation) but it can be viewed here too: https://www.tiktok.com/@ourlinehq/video/7632638511333592342?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7547488277419558422. There are no graphic images but we do give the facts on non-fatal strangulation and the law.
Thank you for the signatures and support!

We don’t know yet whether it will be broadcast before the watershed because the running order hasn’t been decided yet. We don’t even know if it will make the grand final at all.

The BBC can’t decide not to broadcast it if the EBU are allowing it to be in.

ACIGC - the BBC has its own standards that it will breach if it allows that song in its current form. The petition is not asking that the song to be banned - it has asked the BBC to request the EBU to require changes to the song lyrics. The EBU has done this before for other songs.

Signed.

Signed

Thank you everyone who has signed so far! If anyone can share on other social media channels, that would be fab. Thank you

@DreamyHedgehog apologies, I realise you shared our petition. Thank you. Also thanks for your comments - I agree with them completely.

Signed. Puerile and dangerous

If anyone is interested in joining our work and helping out with other petitions and campaigns, please get in touch. We've only just set up and we're going to be a collective working together to create positive change - focused mostly on issues affecting women and children. This was our first campaign. We are working on a website that will be up this week. Thanks

The petition hasn't taken off into the numbers I'd hoped

@OurLine How many signatures is considered significant? Surely the BBC could just read what you have written or watch your video and realise that Sarah Cox, Rylan and/or Graham Norton are going to be having to introduce this song to a family audience and what on earth will they say to make it alright? They are going to have to issue warnings surely. How many complaints are they going to get?

Eurovision is very much a minority interest in the UK especially before the event but plenty of family’s will be watching together on the night. Maybe it will go over a lot of people’s heads but give it any thought at all and it’s just not ok.

If they could change the lyrics it is a good song.

The singer (who is also credited as a songwriter) says that the lyrics are a metaphor for self doubt. To be honest I always give some leeway to those who are writing in a second language but perhaps in this case a simple fix would be to replace every occurrence of ‘choke’ with ‘poke’. The song would still work very well.

Thanks for sharing @DreamyHedgehog . Signed

This

@FernandoSor that doesn't deal with the request to make her lungs explode.

No, I don't believe the justification. There's nothing in it that works as a metaphor for self doubt even with the broadest allowances for translation errors.

We'd be really grateful for any sharing you can do of this petition.

We're also hoping that even people defending it, will learn about the risks of strangulation and we can raise awareness of it. https://medium.com/@support2report/theres-a-eurovision-song-called-choke-me-this-is-why-it-matters-1cd1e2b9df14

The petition featured on the ITV news channels online. We have been horrified by some of the comments saying strangulation is normal and even comments from young people saying it can be done carefully.

There should be a public awareness campaign about the risks of strangulation. We hope that will happen. Avon & Somerset PCC has started a campaign (www.avonandsomerset-pcc.gov.uk/news/2026/03/pcc-launches-campaign-on-the-dangers-of-non%E2%80%91fatal-strangulation/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) but it really needs to be a national campaign.

We would be really grateful for your help in getting the petition out to more people and open to any of the Mumsnet hive's brainy ideas of what we can do to promote it. Thanks

Dear God 🤬

Agree

signed.

Thank you all for the signatures and shares. We have created a website now where we'll upload resources: https://www.ourlinehq.org/
It states the aim of this campaign which is not only about Eurovision but also raising awareness of the harms and risks - which increasingly affect young people. Grateful for any shares of the petition and any promotion you can do about it in your own networks and social media. Thanks

Someone mentioned the risk of stroke following strangulation. It's outlined in this systematic review - along with many other horrific outcomes, including death.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33432860/

Have written to my MP. The Institute for Addressing Strangulation is also raising it publicly.

Thanks for doing the petition OP.

They talked about this on woman’s hour on 30th March. A BBC program but the BBC declined to comment.

Thank you everyone. The petition now has 3,800 signatures.
We have created our own Eurovision song in protest against the BBC's decision not to challenge the lyrics. We have posted our son here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3IxNUxSLzGvvWKTQKrDyPA

We have our petition still here: https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-bbc-airing-eurovision-content-that-normalises-violence-against-women

We are also on instagram and X (ourlinehq) where we have posted some free posters and info about non-fatal strangulation.
But we are not well connected on social media (yet) so would really love your support to share.

We have seen from the petition stats that a lot of the signatures came via Whatsapp. Our theory on this is people might be more likely to sign if it is shared to them that way if someone asks them to. Any help on this would mean a lot!

This campaign was set up by a survivor of strangulation (whose perpetrator was convicted under the newish-law) so it is driven by a desire to get out more info out to the public on this.

Your support would be fab - please share.

Thank you

@DreamyHedgehog and @OurLine thanks for your work in drawing attention to this issue. I'm surprised there aren't more signatures on the petition. Would you consider moving this thread/reposting on a board which gets more traffic, like AIBU? I think lots of MNetters would care about this but many of them aren't on FWR