Tag: Eurovision Song Contest

Aa Aa Summit breakdown High hopes in Hanoi come crashing down as US President Donald Trump walks away from Kim Jong Un. The summit between the US and North Korean leaders ended without a deal after Kim insisted that the US lift all sanctions on the country. The main goal of the summit was to shut down one of North Korea's biggest nuclear plants. While the summit in Hanoi didn't achieve this, Trump reaffirmed his commitment to reaching such an agreement, saying: "Speed is not important to me. What is important is that we do the right deal." Nuclear fears From North Korea and Iran to Pakistan and India — are we in a new era of nuclear proliferation? After the US-North Korea summit in Hanoi ended with no promises of denuclearisation, some have begun to worry that nuclear weapons may once again become a pressing threat. As the US and Russia have pledged to withdraw from the INF treaty, global worries have only grown. Hitting a bad note After 15 years of participation, Ukraine has made the decision to step aside from this year's Eurovision Song Contest amid a controversial contractual disagreement with its nominee. Watch Thursday's full Raw Politics episode by clicking on the player above.

Netta Barzilai’s “excellent” song could not win Eurovision “because Europe is imbued with bicolored anti-Semitism: The classic Christian anti-Semitism of Holocaust’s perpetrators and Muslim anti-Semitism that’s striking root” there, he wrote, vowing to eat his own “hat” if he’s proven wrong. Kishon, a political hawk and the son of the late humorist Ephraim Kishon, failed to predict the future: Barzilai’s unconventional song “Toy” in fact did win the contest, earning the fourth-highest score in the pan-European song competition’s 63-year history. But his prediction nonetheless illustrated how many Israelis apparently overestimate the politicization of Eurovision, the prevalence of anti-Israel sentiment in European societies — or both. At this year’s contest, Israel would have come in third Saturday if it were up solely to the official juries of the 43 countries that participated. For example, Israel was the top vote-getter from juries both in France — which many consider emblematic of Europe’s anti-Semitism problem — and the Czech Republic, which is a historic and contemporary bastion of support for Israel and Jews in Europe. Even though Israel won this year’s contest, the organizers were still accused of politicizing the event after its Portuguese hosts did not mention Jerusalem when asking the Israeli jury to announce their score. Greece and Cyprus are notorious for this, with each country giving the other top scores most years. In Israel, too, some saw a political message in the victory by Barzilai. But to some Eurovision veterans, Barzilai’s victory had little to do with her message and everything to do with the gimmickry and showmanship of a woman clucking like a chicken. “It’s a rarity show and that’s a shame in a song festival.”

When he won last year, Portuguese singer Salvador Sobral told the crowd he hoped his victory would bring back "music that means something." He said, "Music is not fireworks, music is feeling." Netta Performs "Toy" 01:35 Her song was pure pop weirdness, and the fans in the arena loved it. After winning, Netta told the crowd "thank you so much for choosing different." Frequently, both they and Netta would break out into a chicken dance, echoing a line in the song in which she appears to do a chicken impression. Some fans of the song in the audience wore chicken hats to show their support. In previous years, those have mostly involved Russia. Last year, for instance, the Russian act was banned by Ukrainian authorities from coming to the country since she had visited Crimea after Russia annexed the peninsula. In response, the European Broadcasting Union, or EBU, which runs the contest, said it was immediately ending its relationship with Mango TV, and would not allow the broadcaster to air Thursday's semifinal or Saturday's grand final. Next year's contest will be held in the winning country, Israel.

Politics always features, however. Some are brilliant at building a national brand through Eurovision. In the last century, Europe loved Brand UK. He resigned after the 2008 contest. The UK ended up mid-table, with over 100 points. “Not winning” won’t show this. If the professionals like Storm but the public do not, we can read that as disapproval. Songs in English have dominated the contest this century, winning every year except 2007 – and last year, when the winner was in Portuguese. Eurovision, like political Europe, is a liberal project. The professionals’ votes are announced first, so we shall have to wait till the end of the evening to see what Eurovision’s public voters have to say about SuRie – and by extension about Britain.