With songs about everything from the joy of raving to the morning after the night before, from death and domestic violence to metaphorical milkshakes and poisoned cakes served in revenge, Eurovision is back for its 69th edition – hosted by Switzerland after singer Nemo's victory last year.
Ahead of the first semi-final on Tuesday night, the contest announced its arrival in host city Basel on Sunday with a parade – mixed with protests over Israel's participation – to kick off a week of revelry building up to the grand final on Saturday, 17 May.
The Eurovision Song Contest was launched in 1956 (with Switzerland the inaugural host) to foster European unity in the wake of the Second World War. A campy yet heartfelt celebration of diversity, national pride and the power of pop, it has gone from seven participating countries to 37, and is now the world's biggest annual live televised music event, reaching 163 million viewers in 150 countries in 2024.
The final on Saturday will see 26 of the 37 entrants compete for the grand prize, the rest having been eliminated in two semi-finals on Tuesday and Thursday. As the host, Switzerland is guaranteed a place in the final, as are the so-called Big Five – France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom – who contribute the most towards the cost of staging the contest.
A history of controversy
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organises Eurovision, insists it is a strictly non-political event but, as they do most years, organisers will have their hands full containing tensions over culture wars and conflicts – this year, those being waged in Gaza and Ukraine.
"It's impossible to depoliticise the event," Dean Vuletic, a historian and the author of Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest, told French news agency AFP.
"It is completely impossible," agreed Jess Carniel, an associate professor at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. "With everyone competing under their national flag... there is always an undercurrent of politics."
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This has previously manifested as an Austrian protest over Franco's dictatorship in Spain in 1969 and Greece submitting a song in 1976 slamming Turkey over its invasion of Cyprus.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine dominated the event in 2022 – which Ukraine won and from which Russia was (and still is) barred – while last year saw protests over Israel's war in Gaza and its inclusion in the contest cast a long shadow in the host city of Malmo, Sweden.
'A message of healing'
Demonstrations are already planned against Israel's participation this year and security has been stepped up. The event will see 1,300 police officers on duty, with specialists drafted in from the military alongside cyber security experts.
Isreal's entrant Yuval Raphael survived the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival on 7 October, 2023, and will perform a song entitled New Day Will Rise, which she describes as a message of healing and solidarity.
More than 70 former Eurovision competitors last week signed an open letter calling for Israel to be banned from the event over the war in Gaza, including France's 2023 entrant La Zarra, the UK's Mae Muller and Iceland's Da∂I Freyr.
Last year's winner Nemo has joined calls for Israel to be ejected, saying: "Israel's actions are fundamentally at odds with the values that Eurovision claims to uphold – peace, unity, and respect for human rights."
Spain's public broadcaster has also asked the European Broadcasting Union, which organises Eurovision, to open a "debate" on whether Israel should be allowed to take part, a move also backed by Iceland and Slovakia, while a protest took place outside the offices of Irish broadcaster RTE on Friday calling for it to withdraw from the contest in protest at Israel's inclusion.
Spain public broadcaster calls for 'debate' over Israel's Eurovision participation
RTE director general Kevin Bakhurst said it would not pull its entry – Laika Party, an ode to the first dog in space, performed by singer Emmy (who is Norwegian) – out of the competition.
However, he said he had written to the EBU, chaired by Irishman and former RTE director general Noel Curran, to ask for a "discussion" on Israel’s inclusion in the contest.
In response to the criticism, Eurovision director Martin Green said: "As a reminder, the EBU is an association of public service broadcasters, not governments, who are all eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest every year if they meet the requisite requirements.
"As part of its mission to secure a sustainable future for public service media, the EBU is supporting our Israeli Member KAN against the threat from being privatised or shut down by the Israeli government."
Ukraine singer's home destroyed
The EBU has also faced criticism over what some have called double standards, given that Russia has been barred from the event since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, while Israel has not faced similar sanctions in the wake of the war in Gaza.
Ukraine's 2025 contestant Khrystyna Starykova posted on Instagram last week that her home has been destroyed by Russian shelling in the city of Myrnograd, while she has been in Switzerland rehearsing.
She posted photos of her damaged apartment block in the Sviltly neighbourhood, with the caption: "Home. And I dreamed so much of returning home."
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In an interview with Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne, she vowed to carry on and perform "for the sake of our country" and "to show what a strong people we are".
In response to Russia's expulsion, President Vladimir Putin has ordered the revival of a Soviet-era alternative to Eurovision, named Intervision – with the aim of "developing international cultural and humanitarian cooperation", the Guardian reported.
Presidential envoy Mikhail Shvydkoi has said that countries including Brazil, Cuba, India and China had already agreed to take part in the event, planned for the autumn.
Swiss referendum
This year's event has also sparked debate in the host nation Switzerland, where the conservative Federal Democratic Union (EDU) party waged a campaign to block public funding for it – based on what it called the contest's promotion of a "woke agenda".
"It has become like a freak show," Samuel Kullmann, a member of the Bern cantonal parliament, told Reuters, accusing Eurovision of pushing queer identity narratives at the expense of traditional values.
Last year's winner Nemo won the 2024 contest with The Code, a song about their journey of non-binary gender identity self-discovery.
There were also objections from evangelical Christian groups, who claim performers regularly sing about satanism and the occult.
But in a referendum – a regular feature of Swiss democratic life – on 24 November last year, 66.6 percent of voters gave approval to Basel's budget for the event of $40 million.
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Flying the flag
The organisers have also adopted a new flag policy this year, following a row last year.
In a tightening of rules, contestants will now only be allowed to display the flag of the country they are representing, while restrictions for audience members have been loosened – they can now wave any flag they like in the arena, including Palestinian flags and all iterations of LGBTQ+ flags.
This was in contrast to last year’s event, where only the flags of competing countries and the standard six-stripe rainbow Pride flag were permitted in the arena. Non-binary acts Bambie Thug from Ireland and Switzerland's Nemo were not allowed to wave the non-binary flag on the Eurovision stage.
The decision to ban Pride flags from the stage this year has been a controversial one, given Eurovision's legendary LGBTQ+ fanbase.
The Netherlands’ national broadcaster Avrotros appealed to organisers to relax this rule in the run-up to this year’s live final, following a request from an LGBTQ+ rights advocacy group in the country.
After discussions, the EBU decided against a rule change so close to the contest, with event director Green saying: "Eurovision needs no flag to demonstrate its alliance and celebration of the LGBTQ+ community. You only have to see the show, see the people that are taking part, hear what they're singing about."
Lyrics under the spotlight
While the EBU said it was too late to rewrite the rules on flags, one entrant was asked to change their song title and lyrics, after the organisation deemed the original version too reminiscent of an offensive English word.
Maltese singer Miriana Conte was to sing a song called Serving Kant – a play on the Maltese word for "singing" and a well-known phrase in drag culture that uses an English term for female genitalia.
The request was reportedly prompted by a complaint from the BBC, according to the Times of Malta, although the UK broadcaster has declined to comment on this.
Meanwhile, some in Italy have taken offence at Estonia's entry, Espresso Macchiato by singer Tommy Cash – who has previously dubbed himself "Kanye East" and is known for his provocative and tongue-in-cheek parodies.
The song is sung in a mock Italian accent, and some have said it perpetrates stereotypes, with lines such as: "It keeps me sweating like a mafioso."
Codacons, the Italian association for consumer rights, has called for the song to be disqualified, as has Gian Marco Centinaio, a senator with Italy's far-right League party, who said: "Those who insult Italy should stay out of Eurovision."
The bookies' choice
While rumours swirl of an appearance by Canadian singer Celine Dion – who won the contest for Switzerland in 1988, launching her career in the process – France's hopes this year are being carried by Louane, a superstar in the country who rose to fame aged 16 when she appeared on TV singing competition The Voice. Since then she has sold more than 3 million albums.
She'll be singing a ballad entitled Maman, a conversation with her late mother, who died when Louane was 17 – a track she debuted during half-time at the Six Nations rugby match between France and Scotland in March, performing on a platform 20 metres above the pitch.
Bookmakers predict France will finish in third place, with Austria in second and Sweden's entry KAJ (a band from Finland) the hot favourites to win – with a catchy ditty about the joys of a having a sauna.
(with newswires)
