BBC FINALLY DEFENDS ITSELF AFTER EUROVISION SONG CONTEST BACKLASH
The BBC has admitted its coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest ‘didn’t appeal to everyone’.
The event took place in Malmo, Sweden, earlier this month, with Switzerland’s act Nemo taking out the win with their song The Code.
However, in the lead-up to, and during the contest, it had countless controversial moments, including disqualifications, withdrawals of spokespeople, flag bans, calls for a country to be disqualified and protestors pushing for a boycott.
Now, two weeks on, BBC bosses have issued a statement about its coverage.
‘We received complaints from some people who are unhappy with some aspects of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest,’ it began.
‘The Eurovision Song Contest continues to be one of the most popular entertainment programmes on the BBC, attracting millions of viewers.
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‘The long running contest is organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in conjunction with that year’s host broadcaster and the other member broadcasters and always features an eclectic range of performances.
‘Whilst we feel that this year’s Eurovision remained within general expectations for this annual event, we understand there may be some aspects of the broadcast that didn’t appeal to everyone.
The statement concluded with the BBC writing it was ‘continually listening to our audience’ and it had ‘shared all feedback’ with the BBC teams responsible for the BBC’s broadcast of Eurovision and with the organisers of the competition.
Some of the drama that unfolded during this year’s contest included Netherlands’ entrant Joost Klein being cut from the Grand Final after being axed for making a ‘threatening gesture’, acts being told to remove references to Palestine from their outfits and jurors Alessandra Mele from Norway and Finnish runner-up of 2023 Käärijä, relinquishing their responsibilities at the last minute saying it ‘doesn’t feel right’ to be part of the point-giving process.
Protests also erupted outside of the Malmö Arena because of Israel’s inclusion.
Ireland’s Bambie Thug and Italy’s Angelina Mango were also among the contestants who hit out at the tension behind-the-scenes too.
The EBU later released a statement in which it said it ‘regretted’ that some delegations ‘didn’t respect the spirit of the rules and the competition both onsite and during their broadcasts’.
‘We spoke to a number of delegations during the event regarding various issues that were brought to our attention.’
‘The EBU’s governing bodies will, together with the heads of delegations, review the events surrounding the ESC in Malmö to move forward in a positive way and to ensure the values of the event are respected by everyone,’ the statement concluded.
The 2024 Eurovision Song Contest is streaming on BBC iPlayer.
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2024-05-22T11:37:05Z dg43tfdfdgfd