“We’re off to the races!” declares Graham Norton as the camp action gets underway at Basel’s St Jakob arena in Switzerland. And thus it falls once more to Eurovision to sashay into the bloody-toothed geopolitical scrum, plonk down a boombox playing the Vengaboys and try to get a savage world to sing about saunas for four hours.
The ‘Vision, with its post-war ideals of unity through cheese-pop, wasn’t made for violent division within its ranks, nor at all ready for it. In recent, turbulent years it has become as much an international PR exercise as song contest, pinioned by its supposed non-political ethos as its participants make it ever more overtly political. This year, as in 2024, the main source of controversy is Israel’s involvement in the event through contestant Yuval Raphael.
