Artists and cultural workers accuse the contest of helping whitewash Gaza genocide

More than 1,100 musicians and cultural workers have signed an open letter urging fans, performers, broadcasters, and crew to boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, accusing the event of "whitewashing" and normalizing Israel's "genocide" in Gaza and Lebanon.

Eurovision is an annual televised song contest run by the European Broadcasting Union. The event has long marketed itself as a non-political spectacle, but it has repeatedly become a flashpoint over war, identity, and woke cultural messaging.

"This May, millions of people are expected to tune in to the 70th Eurovision Song Contest. For the third consecutive year, they'll find Israel celebrated onstage despite its ongoing genocide in Gaza," reads the letter published by the No Music For Genocide campaign. "As musicians and cultural workers... we reject Eurovision being used to whitewash and normalise Israel's genocide, siege, and brutal military occupation against Palestinians."

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Among the best-known signatories are Brian Eno, Massive Attack, Sigur Ros, Idles, Mogwai, Macklemore, Kneecap, Primal Scream, Hot Chip, and Of Monsters and Men - as well as Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters and former Eurovision winners Emmelie de Forest and Charlie McGettigan.

The campaign has praised several national broadcasters, including those in Spain, Ireland, Iceland, Slovenia, and the Netherlands, for either threatening to boycott or already withdrawing over Israel's inclusion. At the same time, the BBC backed the decision to let Israel participate, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he would support Berlin pulling out of Eurovision if Israel were excluded, calling the debate "a scandal."

The letter further argues that the organizers apply a clear double standard by keeping Israel in the competition while Russia remains banned indefinitely after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Moscow has responded by reviving Intervision, a Soviet-era alternative pitched by the Kremlin as a more "traditional values" music contest free of politics and "perversion."

Eurovision has been embroiled in numerous scandals over performances and themes seen as overtly sexual ever since Austrian drag performer Conchita Wurst won the 2014 contest, in what was celebrated as an LGBT triumph. The contest has also faced accusations of bias, with critics arguing that voting patterns often reflect political alliances, cultural similarities, or historical relationships rather than the musical quality of the entries.

(RT.com)