On Saturday evening, it’s time for the grand final of the Eurovision song contest, and before that artists, presenters and audience have had time to practice in order to land the demanding broadcast. On Friday, as usual, a rehearsal of the final was therefore held – but it did not go as planned.
During the genre rep, all finalists had to present their contributions and afterwards a points award was held. Since Friday’s “competition” was just a rehearsal, the scorers each got their own made-up script with which countries should be awarded which points.
The article in brief:
During Friday’s replay, Finland’s scorer refused to follow the script and award twelve points to Israel.
Instead, she answered “Ireland”. When Petra Mede repeated the question to get the correct answer, Finland again answered “Ireland”.
On social media, Eurovision fans have been urged to vote for Ireland to show their displeasure that Israel is allowed to enter the contest despite the war in Gaza.
Bambi Thug, who represents Ireland, performed on Tuesday’s rehearsal with the text “Cease fire” and “Freedom written on the body” – however, he was not allowed to perform with this during the actual competition later in the evening.
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When it came time for Finland to hand out its jury’s score, the scorer, however, chose to go off script. According to the script, the representative was supposed to say that Finland is giving its twelve-pointer to Israel, but she refused.
– Twelve points from the Finnish jury go to Ireland!, she said instead.
– Oh, Finland, we get to hear the twelve-pointer again, thank you. You give it to – which country did you say?, replied the presenter Petra Mede in an attempt.
Then followed a long silence. Late:
– Ireland.
So the competition ended
1. Switzerland
2. Croatia
3. Ukraine
4. France
5. Israel
6. Ireland
7. Italy
8. Armenia
9. Sweden
10. Portugal
11. Greece
12. Germany
13. Luxemburg
14. Lithuania
15. Cyprus
16. Latvia
17. Serbia
18. Great Britain
19. Finland
20. Estonia
21. Georgia
22. Spain
23. Slovenia
24. Austria
25. Norway
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The call: Vote for Ireland
On social media, Eurovision fans have been urged to vote for Ireland in protest against Israel. The reason is that during Tuesday’s protest, the artist representing Ireland, Bambi Thug, had written “ceasefire” and “freedom” on his body, something considered pro-Palestinian, using letters from the ancient Ogham alphabet.
After the genre rep, the EBU, the organizer of the Eurovision song contest, announced that the artist was not allowed to compete with the lyrics because the words contradicted the competition’s apolitical nature, reported Daily Mail.
During the actual competition on Saturday night, last year’s winner of the Finnish Melodifestivalen, Käärijä, was supposed to have awarded Finland’s points, but just after 19:30 on Saturday, the artist announced via Instagram that he was withdrawing from the task.
At 8 p.m., Yle announced that radio profiler Toni Laaksonen will take over the task.
Finland abandons the script and gives the twelfth to Ireland – not Israel as planned.
Photo: EBU / EBU
Petra Mede repeats the question, but gets the same answer.
Photo: EBU / EBU
