Eurovision Wars is a series of podcasts exploring geopolitical themes as they emerged on the Eurovision Song Contest stage. You can listen to Seasons 1 and 2 in full on Spotify, covering such topics as the Russia-Ukraine War, and the long-running dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia. For Season 3, the podcast moves to its new home at ESC Insight, and will focus on the many controversies of Eurovision 2024.

In episode six, the final episode looking at the 2024 season, Phil Doré and Ana Oppenheim, widen the scope of the podcast to look at some of the other political moments that impacted Malmö 2024, albeit without as much coverage in the mainstream press as the Israeli entry.

How are the tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan reflected in the Contest, how close was controversy in the Serbian selection to disrupting Malmö 2024, and how should the EBU decide which countries should be represented by their national broadcaster at the Song Contest?

Before we go on, a quick reminder of the principles we are holding to in this series. Discussing Israel and Palestine is inevitably difficult and polarising, so in episode one, we introduced three ground rules to frame our podcasts.

Be willing to keep more than one thought in your head.

It can be true that the founding of the state of Israel was in response to centuries of antisemitism and the horrors of the Holocaust, and also that its founding was marked by massacres and forced displacement of the local Arab population. Likewise, it can be true that Israelis have a right not to be victims of Hamas terrorism, and Palestinians have a right not to be bombed by Israeli warplanes. These are not contradictory.

Explanation is not justification.

When we say that decades of oppression against the Palestinians contributed to October 7th, that is not to justify the atrocities of that day. Likewise, in describing those atrocities, this does not render the mass destruction inflicted by Israel on Gaza acceptable.

 If one side in a conflict commits a war crime, that doesn’t mean the other side gets a free war crime.

Because, unbelievably, that point still has to be made.

Eurovision stage concept for Malmo 2024 (EBU / SVT)

If we are to fully understand how the Eurovision Song Contest became so controversial in 2024, then this inevitably leads to difficult conversations. But these are conversations we absolutely need to have as a community.

You can find previous Eurovision Wars episodes on ESC Insight here.

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