The Eurovision Song Contest has been held since 1956 and during this time has become one of the most popular non-sporting events in the world. However, the original idea of this show was quite good – to unite the European peoples after the Second World War, but due to political conflicts and personal opinions, the situation often got out of hand, even though any political speech is prohibited by the rules on this show. Therefore, we propose to recall 10 high-profile political scandals at the competition.

1964

In 1964 the competition was held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Many fans then resented the fact that Portugal and Spain were taking part in it, because they believed that countries with a dictatorial regime should not be allowed to participate in the song competition. That is why, during the competition, an activist ran onto the stage with a poster “Boycott Franco and Salazar”, referring to António di Salazar and Francisco Franco.

1968

In 1968, the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Great Britain, Spain won that year with the song La, la, la, performed by the singer Massiel. Many years later, information appeared that in fact the country won then not fairly, since the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco actually bribed judges throughout Europe, hoping that if the competition was held in his country, this would improve its image.

1969

The story of the dictatorship repeated itself and Austria refused to participate in the competition, because they did not want to send their performer to a country with a dictatorial regime – Spain.

1974

The story with Portugal was continued in the 74th. Despite the fact that the contest was held on April 6, already on the 24th, the song that participated from the country in the E depois do adeus contest became a call for the overthrow of the dictatorship in the country – it was turned on on the radio, which was a signal for members of the underground organization “Movement of Captains” and the beginning of the active phase of the Carnation Revolution.

1974

This year in Italy, an important referendum was to be held, at which they were going to finally resolve the issue of divorce. It was for this reason that the local state channel RAI refused to broadcast the competition, because the representative from Italy, Gigliola Cinquetti, sang a song called Si (translated as “yes”). The channel’s censors feared that the composition could be perceived as propaganda on the eve of the referendum.

By the way, at the referendum, divorces were finally legalized in the country.

1975

Turkey refused to go to the competition in Israel, yielding to pressure from other Arab countries that opposed the participation of a representative of a predominantly Muslim country in the competition in Israel.

1978

Broadcasters in the Arab countries refused to acknowledge Israel’s participation in the contest, so countries switched to commercials during the speech. But they had difficulty with this when Israel began to lead and as a result won. Then, on its television, the Jordanian broadcaster declared Belgium the winner, not Israel.

1979

That year, Germany was represented by the group Dschinghis Khan (translated as “Genghis Khan”). It might seem like nothing special, but that year the competition was held in Israel and many people took the name of the group negatively, as it praised the marauding dictator.

2005 year

Then Lebanon was supposed to debut at the song contest. The country was supposed to be represented by singer Aline Lahoud with the song Quand Tout S’enfuit, but the Lebanese broadcaster wanted to replace the Israeli contestant’s performance with a TV advertisement. The European Broadcasting Union forbade the country to exclude Israel’s performance from the broadcast, as a result of which the debut of Lebanon did not take place – the country refused to participate.

year 2009

In 2008, the Five-Day War with Russia took place in Georgia, which caused the country to lose control over the territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. A year after that, Georgian Eurovision participants Stepane and 3G decided to unobtrusively express their political position with the song We Don’t Wanna Put In. Representatives of the competition asked to rewrite the song, the Georgians refused because of which they were disqualified.

year 2009

A political scandal is flaring up in Azerbaijan over the fact that during the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, several residents of the country cast their votes for the representative of Armenia, and for many years there has been a war between these two countries over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Ministry of National Security of Azerbaijan became seriously interested in this fact and began to clarify the identity of those who voted. Since then, the European Broadcasting Union has set a new rule that prohibits mobile operators from sharing their customers’ voting patterns or personal information.

2007

We all remember Verka Serduchka’s incendiary song Dancing Lasha Tumbai. However, many Russians that year heard the phrase Russia Goodbye instead of Lasha Tumbai in the song. Because of what, criticism of Andrei Danilko began, and the artist became persona non grata in the Russian Federation.

By the way, after the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, Danilko said that he had now decided to change Lasha Tumbai to the scandalous Russia goodbye.

2011

In January 2011, a list of all participants in the Eurovision Song Contest appeared on the Eurovision website and Macedonia was simply called Macedonia, and not the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) – that is how it was officially called in the EU documentation. But the problem is that Greece also has a part of the territory called Macedonia and for many years there has been hostility between these two countries against this background.

In 2019, the situation was resolved – the country was renamed the Republic of North Macedonia.

year 2014

In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, but despite this, the European community turned a blind eye and decided to allow the aggressor country to enter the song contest. That year, the Russian Federation was represented by the Tolmachev sisters. But during the announcement of the results, the girls were booed.

2019

The Icelandic band Hatari made a splash that year in the competition, but also got into a controversy. The artists brought the flag of Palestine with them to Israel and raised it live during the announcement of the results. Note that between Israel and Palestine since the middle of the 20th century, an armed conflict has continued. As a result, the Icelandic radio station RÚV was fined 5,000 euros.

2019

Also in 2019, a scandal erupted through a participant from Ukraine – the singer MARUV, who, as it turned out, performed in Russia. Also, at the first press conference, the girl could not express herself clearly about the war in Ukraine and whose Crimea.

A similar story happened this year with Alina Pash, who not only performed in Russia, but also forged documents that were supposed to prove that she did not. Because of what, the Kalush Orchestra group went to the competition.

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