A divided Iceland approaches Eurovision
Iceland’s 2025 Eurovision entry, VÆB, made up of Hálfdán Helgi Matthíasson and Matthías Davíð Matthíasson, two 20-something brothers with a penchant for shiny silver suits and sunglasses, take the stage in Basel, Switzerland, on Tuesday, May 12. Instead of competing in an uncomplicated celebration of culture-for-culture’s-sake, they’ll be stepping into a fraught and divided Eurovision.
On May 6, an open letter from over 70 former Eurovision participants was submitted to the EBU. Just days away from the song contest, it calls for Israel to be banned from the competition. Among the undersigned are 30 individuals from Iceland, including former competitor and national icon, Páll Óskar.
“Former artists and fans of the contest, myself included, are questioning and protesting the participation of Israel in the contest,” Páll Óskar, one of Iceland’s most celebrated Eurovision competitors, explained to the Grapevine. “The EBU had no problem with disqualifying Russia from the contest within days after Russia invaded Ukraine. At the same time, we have been watching Israel committing war crimes and genocide against Palestine.”
In a time of conflict, what was once a “holiday from history,” Eurovision, is mired in protest and comparison over the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Israel’s ongoing and escalating military aggression in Gaza.
A once apolitical competition
The Eurovision Song Contest has been one feature of Europe’s decades-long streak of peace and prosperity since its founding in 1956. The competition’s intention of being an apolitical platform for singers and songwriters has worked, for the most part, with few political controversies in its 69 years. However, as Europe’s “holiday from history,” as one European head of state put it, has ended, so has Eurovision’s ability to stay apolitical — the end of the holiday being Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Within a day of the invasion, the EBU banned Russia from the Eurovision Song Contest. Finnish public broadcaster Yle was the first to take a stand, declaring they would not send a contestant if Russia were permitted to participate. However, it is important to note that the EBU’s decision was catalysed by the efforts of several countries’ broadcast representatives, mainly Nordic nations, with Stefán Eiríksson, Director General of Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RÚV), challenging Russia’s participation in the contest while engaged in an act of war.
In their statement banning Russia, the EBU announced, “The decision reflects concern that, in light of the unprecedented crisis in Ukraine, the inclusion of a Russian entry in this year’s contest would bring the competition into disrepute.” The ban of Russia has been upheld in the years following, with Eurovision’s consistent line being that Russia violated EBU regulations. On their website FAQ, they explain, “In the case of Russia, the Russian broadcasters themselves were suspended from the EBU due to their persistent breaches of membership obligations and the violation of public service values.”
A contested contest
The 68th Eurovision season — that’s 2024 — Iceland’s 36th, beginning with Söngvakeppnin and continuing to Iceland’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, devolved and disintegrated into a fraught mess that left much of the country dissatisfied, one way or another.
As Israel’s military response to Hamas’ October 7, 2023 incursion escalated and evolved into a humanitarian crisis on the Gaza Strip, a movement emerged internationally, including Iceland, calling for Israel to be barred from the Eurovision Song Competition.
While calls for a ban entered the conversation, questions arose as to why the EBU was taking such a different approach to Israel’s military aggressions compared to Russia’s. Some noted Israel’s position within Eurovision and the EBU vastly differs from Russia’s — namely, the former’s financial ties to the competition. The Israeli company Moroccanoil is a big financier of the competition, so key that Eurovision’s “red carpet” is Moroccanoil’s branded “turquoise carpet.” No Russian company has ever been that central to Eurovision’s bottom line.
In Iceland, efforts to ban Israel from competition began at the grassroots level. A nationwide petition, which began late 2023, had gathered over 10.000 signatures by the time of Eurovision 2024. The petition called for either Israel to be barred from Eurovision, or — if not — for Iceland to boycott the competition.
By December 2023, the conversation prompted the board of the Icelandic Society of Authors and Composers (FTT) to take a stance, urging RÚV to boycott unless Israel was banned on the same grounds as Russia was. In the statement, they wrote: “We all have a duty to take a stand against war and the killing of civilians, including innocent children. We always have the choice not to associate ourselves with such actions, whether as individuals or as state institutions. We do not owe it to nations that act with aggression backed by military power, to share a stage with them at an event that is generally characterised by joy and optimism.”
RÚV’s response tried to both dodge and diffuse the debate, passing the buck to the artists by making a first-of-its-kind decision: Söngvakeppnin was to be a stand-alone contest, and whoever won could decide for themself if they would participate in Eurovision.
Söngvakeppnin: Dividing families since 2024
If RÚV had hoped for this to calm the waters surrounding Söngvakeppni, that is not what happened. Unexpectedly, Iceland found itself with Palestinian-born singer Bashar Murad as one of the contestants in the 2024 Söngvakeppni. Bashar emphasised that if he won, he would go to the Eurovision Song Contest. This put the entire debate around participation into turmoil, regardless of what side people were on.
Söngvakeppni’s final stage was a stand-off between Bashar Murad and former Eurovision contestant Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir. But technical difficulty in the voting results from an already unprecedented final voting duel between the top two contestants cast a shadow on Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir’s ultimate victory.
As Hera Björk prepared to lead the Icelandic delegation to Malmö, Sweden, her co-songwriter, Ásdís María Viðarsdóttir, announced she would not participate in the competition as her “conscience would not allow it.” Further, Gísli Marteinn Baldursson, talk show host and a perennial staple of Icelandic Eurovision coverage, stated he would “not be commentating Eurovision” that year, because of “Israel’s actions in Gaza and the contest’s response to them — mainly the lack thereof” and that to him “Eurovision [was] about good atmosphere and joy” and that he felt neither was present that year.
In the month following the Söngvakeppni, a Maskína poll showed 42.2% of respondents were opposed to Iceland participating in Malmö, compared to 32.3% in support of it. A Prósent poll echoed the same sentiment, showing 46% opposed compared to 31% in support.
On May 7 2024, Hera Björk took the stage in Malmö, placing dead last in the semi-finals, while Eurovision viewership in Iceland was markedly lower than in previous years. Exemplifying the mark left on the year by the competition, RÚV’s end-of-year sketch show Áramótaskaupið exhibited a family sitting to watch the competition, which devolves into a living room battle zone. Even if comedically dramatised, this skit underscored just how widespread conversations and tensions stemming from the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest were in Iceland.
Cover Illustration: Sigmundur Breiðfjörð Þorgeirsson
2025: Let’s “think about things”
In Iceland this year, the debate around Eurovision has been quieter — as of May 7, the petition that received 10.000 signatures last year has less than 5.000. This year’s Söngvakeppnin saw VÆB emerge victorious. The project of the brothers VÆB has garnered quite a social media following since their win. Their winning song “RÓA” — a dramatic, however nautical-themed tune about rowing — is high-energy, complete with rap, strings, and a shoutout to the previously mentioned Gísli Marteinn.
While the public movement has been quieter, the conversation has reached higher circles than last year. On April 22, Iceland made international headlines after Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir stated in an interview that she finds it “strange — and really abnormal — that Israel is allowed to participate in Eurovision, given the war crimes and, in fact, the ethnic cleansing that has taken place in recent weeks and months in Gaza.”
“Then there’s the other matter,” the foreign minister continued, “this is a decision for European broadcasters, among them Iceland via the National Broadcasting Service (RÚV). And I don’t find it at all unreasonable for this to be brought up in that forum.”
Þorgerður Katrín’s words have been continually referenced in the same breath as statements by Spanish, Slovenian, and Irish broadcasters, who have formally expressed their concerns about Israel’s participation to the EBU body. Yet, none of this has had any bearing on Iceland’s participation in the Eurovision contest so far.
Po-ta-to, po-tah-to
The focal, and most evaded, question of the debate has been, and continues to be, what is it that makes Russia and Israel different cases in the context of Eurovision? EBU has taken a simple view on the matter: that Russian broadcasters (RTR, Channel One and RDO) broke the EBU’s rules, while Israel’s KAN has not. The EBU’s view is not shared by all.
Among those is Guðný Nielsen, who is behind an international movement to chronicle articles or interviews where it is believed that KAN has broken EBU regulations. Her efforts have yielded no results. “Pointing out the EBU’s double standards is so often met with silence or deflection from those in power,” she tells the Grapevine. Guðný and those working alongside her believe this invalidates the credibility of the EBU.
Páll Óskar agrees, and he is firm in expressing his dissatisfaction and disappointment with the EBU’s rhetoric. “There is a dark shadow hanging over Eurovision now, and it’s all related to the mixed messages and double standards of the EBU, which is responsible for the whole thing. The mixed message they are sending out is constantly claiming that Eurovision is a non-political platform. This statement is either tone deaf or delusional,” he states to us.
As a result, many of those frustrated by the EBU’s inaction have shifted to push their national broadcasters to take a stand. Guðný is one of these people, saying it is important “that our broadcaster does everything in its power to ensure that Eurovision and the EBU uphold those same values.”
Playing hot potato
The debate has entered the board of Iceland’s National Broadcaster (RÚV) on multiple occasions, and some board members have moved to resolve that RÚV takes a stance. This has been voted down every time, but even if passed, it is unclear what effect it would have had on RÚV’s policy. “We have received the response and information […] that we are the operational management and could never make any decision about [Eurovision participation],” new RÚV board member Diljá Ámundadóttir Zoëga told Morgunblaðið.
The same article concluded that the power to pressure the EBU to ban Israel, or to call for an Icelandic boycott, is held by one man: RÚV Director General, Stefán Eiríksson. This aligns with the view of the Ministry of Culture, Innovation and Higher Education, which told the Grapevine, “decisions regarding participation in international broadcasting events, such as the Eurovision Song Contest, fall under the authority of the Director General of RÚV, Iceland’s national broadcaster.”
In his correspondence with this publication, Stefán confirmed that it is on RÚV to make such calls, but also that in his view, it did not fall “under [RÚV’s] scope to make policy decisions in the field of foreign affairs.”
Holding the hot potato
In an interview on RÚV on April 15, Minister of Culture, Innovation and Higher Education, Logi Einarsson, said that the government needed to clarify its position on whether to boycott international cultural events and sports competitions where Israel participates. He also pointed out that when there is no national policy regarding this, the responsibility of deciding how to engage falls on the shoulders of artists and athletes.
Now, three weeks later, this call for action remains unanswered. That is a difficult position to leave a Eurovision contestant in, says Páll Óskar. “Only a handful of competing artists have individually expressed their opinions about Israel in Eurovision,” he explains, “only to be personally and severely attacked in the comment sections, regardless if they are in favour of Israel, neutral or against them competing. That alone casts a shadow over the whole contest, takes the joy out of it, makes it harder to watch.”
To Páll Óskar, the question of who needs to make the ultimate decision on Israel’s participation in Eurovision has a clear answer: “If some guest or an artist at the party behaves like an asshole or a bully in the club, then it’s the bouncer’s job to throw that bully out. If the Eurovision Song Contest is a club, then the EBU happens to be both the party holder and the bouncer. That bouncer had no problem with throwing Russia out of the party. The party guests or artists on stage should not be responsible for throwing out the bully; that’s the bouncer’s job. We’re looking at you, EBU.”
Is Eurovision a weird form of therapy for a national inferiority complex? Read here.
Buy subscriptions, t-shirts and more from our shop right here!
