Bambie Thug accuses Eurovision organisers of “not supporting them” amidst Israel commentator controversy
Bambie Thug has accused Eurovision organisers of “not supporting them” over claims that the Israeli broadcasters “incited violence” against them.
In an interview after their performance at Eurovision 2024, the Irish singer-songwriter claimed the Israeli broadcaster KAN “incited violence against me twice, three times.”
“We brought it up to the EBU,” they told reporters. “They said they’d follow up. They waited to the last minute, we still haven’t gotten statement back to us, allowed us to be scapegoats, allowed us to be the spokesperson for standing up for ourselves.
“And yeah, the broadcaster has disobeyed the rules and I hope next year they won’t be able to compete because of that.”
It was previously reported that Bambie raised a complaint with the EBU shortly before the competition due to KAN’s commentary on their performance. The comments, which told viewers to “prepare your curses” and claim Bambie’s performance was “the most scary” of the night, were labelled “in breach of the rules” of the EBU by Bambie.
Just before they were due to go on stage, Bambie posted an update on their social media to share that the EBU confirmed to them that the Israeli broadcaster had “broken the rules of conduct”. However, a statement from EBU Director General Noel Curran seemed to contradict what Bambie had been told.
In the same interview, Bambie went on to describe this year’s competition as “so hard and so horrible”, declaring: “fuck the EBU”.
“I don’t even care anymore. Fuck them. The thing that makes this is the contestants, the community behind it, the love and the power and the support of all of us is what is making change.”
Recently, the organisers doubled down on their choice, with the EBU saying: “I fully agree it is a family event and the great thing about this music competition is that it’s all about values. It’s about uniting onstage all of these young talents, these participants, and they do great. It’s about diversity and inclusion.
“But there are competition rules and you need to follow the competition rules and take decisions based on these competition rules. If you were to exclude Kan outside of these competition rules, that would have been a political decision, as such, which we cannot take.”
The EBU’s decision has also proved controversial amongst longtime Eurovision fans, who NME interviewed before the competition tonight. Though Jay Aston from former UK Eurovision-winning group The Fizz (fka Buck’s Fizz) said she would be watching, other fans such as musician Jason Kwan have expressed doubt over the competition’s political neutrality clause.
Kwan claimed Eurovision was “inherently and explicitly political” due to the EBU’s decision to include Israel and to censor “pro-Palestinian artists, and even outwardly using the official social account to like problematic posts and block accounts who have provided genuine critique and questions around the EBU’s decisions.”
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Alex Rigotti
NME
