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

@GCScot thank you. I've learnt that we get a boost in signatures when other people promote it - such as @DreamyHedgehog did. People tend to respond better to that than what might sound more like preaching when directly from our collective. So if anyone on here would be willing to do that, I'd be grateful.

(One of the biggest jumps in signatures came from a Romanian woman who publicly wrote about the petition, and that issues with strangulation and domestic abuse in Romania).

Our MP has written to Lisa Nandy.

Have you tried contacting the presenters?

Thank you. @stinkingbishop Who is your MP? Our Line HQ is on X but I'd love some help in getting the right people tagged and shared with (trying to do quite a lot at once on different platforms and it is proving hard to keep on top of it all!)

Aphra Brandreth.

I signed the other day after your earlier thread. I'm still disgusted. How can it be ok to have a song played at any time of day that glamorises an abhorrent and illegal act?

I'm making plans to accidentally "forget" it's Eurovision and book cinema tickets. I can't sit there with DC and pretend this is remotely normal or ok. We normally watch as a family and play the songs on Spotify for weeks after. Really cross that this is being ruined by misogynistic bollocks like this 😡

Stopped watching years ago, but that is utterly revolting.

i remember the days of ‘Sing little birdie’. It’s just not the same nowadays.

How dystopian. Thank you for the warning.

Campaigning and bringing in laws against 'Non-Fatal Strangulation' seems to have a heavy bias towards English speaking countries so far. I thought I would look at how the song is being presented by the sponsoring TV station. I have nothing to do with Romania in my work or personal life, but I can skim pages fairly well thanks to my Spanish (and Latin). Anyway, there's the translate button too. The controversy is not highlighted so far as I can see [by the broadcaster... we know there have been criticisms within Romania as mentioned up-thread]. What I do notice is a defensive mention of 'it's metaphorical not literal'. There's also a call to break away from 'Dracula, Transylvania and folk', but I can't say this is the way to go.

Link is a live one so things might change.

Eurovision 2026 - Pagina 1 | TVR.RO

Hmm, the BBC had an article yesterday about a potential boycott of Eurovision, and I thought, OK, this issue is getting attention. But no, of course not, it was about the participation of Israel.

Apparently Norway has been asked to tone down their performance because the dancing was too sexualised. But still silence on the lyrics to Romania’s song.

And Boy George is representing San Marino despite his unsavoury criminal record. FFS Eurovision.

Absolutely.

Plus, why is he representing San Marino? Can anyone represent any country?

I think so, yes.

Celine Dion represented Switzerland in one Eurovision.

The nationality of the singer isn't relevant, or even the songwriter, all that matters is which country is putting them in as their entrants in the competition.

The whole thing has become one big celebration of queer culture, the songs have become neither here nor there. And then of course there's the political voting. I miss Terry Wogan gently taking the piss out of the whole thing

Graham Norton does take the piss as well, to be fair.

I think Eurovision is very entertaining (on the whole) and far more interesting than it was say, in the early 2000s, when all the performers seemed to sing the same bland pop songs in fake half-American accents.

2021 was a particularly good year with several songs which would have made worthy winners. 2022 and 2023 were also strong years and I loved the communal solidarity for Ukraine. Unbeknownst to me though, there were allegations of vote-rigging against various countries.

The vibe was clearly off in 2024, when there were allegations of backstage harassment and covert filming of performers (including Joost Klein) and journalists, which apparently went unpunished. The audience weren't happy either.

The sleaze also seems to be be gradually increasing in a minority of the performances and I think it sometimes goes too far. But this year's entry from Romania is something far worse and it disgusts me. In all conscience, I can't watch the contest this year. I don't know if I'll ever watch it again.

The tastemakers and/or executive/media class of Western societies seem to have unilaterally decided sometime in the last 10 years that anything of a camp nature automatically falls under the auspices of 'queer’ and they must, therefore, make the strongest attempts possible to change that thing so much that it becomes unrecognisable and no longer interesting to mainstream culture or longterm fans. I cite Eurovision, Doctor Who and Star Trek as recent examples.

Signed, thank you for sharing.

Non fatal strangulation is a criminal offence in this country and several European countries

It is, but so-called 'sexual strangulation' for gratification among consenting adults is not automatically a criminal offense in the UK for example.

The law only kicks in here when someone is seriously hurt or worse, as a person cannot consent to serious injury or death.

It's applied this way so that someone accused of seriously harming someone or worse cannot claim 'rough sex' as a defence.

we shouldn’t air a song glorifying murder, this is also not on.

Apparently.. the lyrics were never intended to be taken literally as a reference to autoerotic asphyxiation. It's supposed to be an edgy metaphor for being overwhelmed by emotion and self doubt. Take that for what it's worth.

Anyway, even if we ignore that and say it is about autoerotic asphyxiation, there is quite plainly nothing that's 'glorifying murder' in the songs content.

You can make the perfectly reasonable argument that the lyrics are inappropriate for a pre-watershed broadcast without telling fibs.

'Always'?

How old are you because I can tell you that nothing like this was around in the 70s and 80s and not much into the 90s either.

This is horrific

Just now Radio two have done a laboured explanation of how Romania’s song is referencing the singers emotions. I think this may well be the party line. 8.20 on the breakfast show.

Of course they have. Pretending that those lyrics aren't promoting violence - especially against women and girls - is essential to preserve the corporation's RSOH delusion.

Signed

It's irresponsible to broadcast this song at any time because it normalises a dangerous practice which can cause sudden death. Feminist campaigners have been trying to combat violent porn and the normalisation of men strangling women during sex, and this song is a step back in the fight against VAWG.

Shame on the BBC. I'm surprised they never learn. They must have sleaze written through them like a stick of rock.