ESC: Last year’s winner Nemo against Israel’s participation in the ESC

Nemo, victorious for Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest a year ago, spoke out against Israel’s participation in the Gaza War. Similarly, 70 former ESC participants have commented in an open letter. Spain and some other countries also demanded that participation would be discussed.

“I am not behind that Israel (in the Eurovision Song Contest) will take part,” said Nemo (25) to the online portal Huffpost UK. And in an additional statement: “I support calls to exclude Israel from the ESC. Israel’s approach fundamentally violates the values ​​of holding up the Eurovision – peace, unity and respect for human rights.”

Nemo won the ESC in Malmö 2024 with the song “The Code”. That is why this year’s edition takes place in the Swiss border town of Basel. The final is on May 17th.

Israel’s singer survived on Hamas’ terrorist attack festival

For Israel, singer Yuval Raphael (24) competes, who survived the terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. She was a massacre with a friend at the Nova Music Festival on which terrorists from the Gaza Strip. Her song is called “New Day Will Rise”, the text is about loss and hope.

Already in Malmö, the participation of Israel had caused massive demonstrations and also tensions behind the stage. The background is the war against the terrorist organization Hamas, which Israel leads in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. This began after the unprecedented massacre by Palestinian terrorists in Israel. Since then, more than 50,000 people have died in the Gaza strip. The military has no longer let any relief supplies to the area with around two million inhabitants for two months. Many are hungry there. Israel accuses Hamas of stealing relief supplies and selling expensive.