Eurovision bosses have confirmed that an independent investigation is currently underway, following multiple complaints from the acts who competed in this year’s event.
Last month, Eurovision took place in Malmö amid a wave of controversy, with some fans even boycotting the event due to Israel’s continued presence in the competition amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
In the lead-up to the event, several incidents were also reported, with complaints being made to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) by several competitors about members of the Israeli delegation’s behaviour towards other countries’ representatives.
This included Dutch singer Joost, who apparently made at least one complaint about an “unsafe environment” behind the scenes. He was later expelled from the contest after an incident involving a member of the production team.
Eurovision fansite Wiwibloggs reported that at least 13 official complaints were made during this year’s competition, prompting an external investigation to take place.
A spokesperson for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which helps organise the annual song contest, said on Tuesday night: “To further strengthen the Eurovision Song Contest, we have asked an independent expert to look at ESC 2024 in Malmö.”
They added that they hoped this investigation would “share insights and lessons with the EBU governing bodies” in order to “support the continuous improvement of this global event”.
After this year’s competition, an EBU rep said in a statement: “We regret that some delegations at the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Malmö 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.
“Individual cases will be discussed by the event’s governing body, the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group made up of representatives from participating broadcasters, at its next meeting.”
Even this year’s winner, Swiss representative Nemo, was critical of the competition after they were crowned this year’s champion (becoming the first non-binary victor in Eurovision’s history).
Having apparently broken the Eurovision trophy while celebrating their win on stage, Nemo later told reporters: “The trophy can be fixed – maybe Eurovision needs fixing a little bit too, every now and then.”
Nemo went on to say their Eurovision experience had been “really intense”, and “not just pleasant all the way”, but insisted that “at the same time, there was so much love here as well”.