#beansprouts commentates

I have, surprisingly even to myself, gotten back into Eurovision this year. I was not expecting it, because I had fallen out of love with it in the past few years, definitely partially because Israel is still fucking there, but also because Romania's broadcasting company keeps handling it fucking terribly and I'm still mourning the possibility of Malere representing us in 2022. Why the hell has my brain gone back? The US, where I currently live, is in the middle of a fascist government takeover, and my partner and I are actively afraid to leave the country right now. I am severely depressed and unemployed. I think the european energy has hyped me up a bit these past few days.

But, my depression aside, the general consensus is that everyone has an ethical obligation to boycott Eurovision. How do I reconcile these two things?

I've thought about this deeply and I have decided to boycott official participation in the event, while still engaging with the fandom and music. This means I'll return to blogging about it, I'll watch an international stream of the semis and finals with a VPN, and I will not be voting (since there is a "rest of the world" voting bloc as of 2023). A lot of reasons have gone into this, some detailed below.

A boycott serves several purposes. One is to force the target to act by removing sufficient resources that were previously relied upon. The EBU is largely funded by the Big 5 broadcasting networks of Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and the UK. There is nothing I can realistically do to affect Eurovision from this angle.

Another is to send a message through consumer networks by lowering participation numbers, so anyone handling data and marketing can note the lowered voting statistics and prove that the boycott-starting decision had a concrete effect. My lack of voting is for this reason.

To be completely honest, though? I have noticed that much of the loudest and most shaming Eurovision boycotts on tumblr in particular have come from the US and the UK. This sits really badly with me. My fellow Americans, this is not our fucking contest, and this is not our fucking place.

And for the British... in a post-Brexit world, from a country that is known to be hideously racist against my people, I do not accept any fucking judgment on the question of watching an international music contest.

It's so much easier to feel superior about not doing something if you didn't do it to begin with, isn't it? But simply not watching Eurovision, as a member of one of those countries, is not sending a pro-Palestine message. These are already countries that don't consider Eurovision important, and lower viewing numbers will do jack shit to protest the EBU's support of Israel.

Additionally, those of us in rich countries that speak the world's current lingua franca have an overinflated image of our own importance, and of the impact of our consumer choices. For so long we have been sold the propaganda that we can make important changes to the world by what product we consume, down to which music we listen to and which clothes we buy. We desperately want our choice to not watch Eurovision to be a helpful one, because we want to help Palestine, and how easy to do so by simply not watching something!

But that is not actually how many of the world's most important changes happen. What is actually causing the EBU to reconsider their stance on Israel is pressure from the constituent national broadcasting companies. If you are part of an EBU country and want to help, consider contacting your broadcasting country and urge them to join Spain et al. in making their participation contingent on Israel's removal. If the participating countries slowly dwindle down, eventually they will be forced to remove Israel.

Or join a local protest. If I lived in Europe, on the days of the semifinals I would be finding an in-person march against the EBU to demand the removal of Israel. and then probably listening to the songs on my own later

If, like me, you live in the US, stop trying to fight Israel on the Eurovision front and instead join one of the many local movements pushing back against the absurd US military aid given to Israel. It's been heartening to me to see many tech workers fight back within orgs such as No Tech for Apartheid; many of us are being laid off, but the battle is not lost, and the movement is growing in power and impact.

As an aside: I first found out about the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia on r/eurovision. I had never heard anything about this conflict whatsoever before, regardless of how compassionate so many posters seem to be about stopping international wars. It was humbling to be reminded just how many awful conflicts are constantly occurring that we don't hear about them simply because they are in a country the rich don't prioritize. My heart hurt for the Armenian contestants who have had to compete against their aggressors for years without any care from the global community. I realized that many of the loudest voices in online community spaces probably didn't have enough of a wholistic education on European politics to be as judgmental as they are. I was grateful to have enough of a connection to the European community to be learning more about what is happening there. Returning to the Eurovision fandom in 2026 has returned to me that sense of connection.

Consequently, I personally am going to be watching and fanblogging Eurovision, staying connected to the European (and LGBTQ, let's be real) community, while minimizing whatever tiny monetary impact I have by not voting.

I support all the countries and artists boycotting this year. I will be doing my best to stay connected to the rest of Europe while protesting Israel's participation from within the eurovision fan community.