THE ORGANISERS OF the Eurovision has said it “regrets” that some delegations did not “respect the spirit of the rules and the competition both onsite and during their broadcasts”.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) also said that the event’s governing body will discuss “individual cases” at its next meeting.
The final of this year’s song contest was held on Saturday in Malmö, Sweden – Switzerland’s Nemo won the competition.
In a statement today, the European Broadcasting Union said it had spoken to a “number of delegations during the event regarding various issues that were brought to our attention”.
This year’s event proved to be controversial, with the Dutch act Joost Klein having been excluded from the final.
The EBU said Swedish police had investigated a complaint made by a female member of the production crew after an incident following his performance in the semi-final last Thursday.
The EBU added that “it would not be appropriate” for Klein to continue in the contest “while the legal process takes its course”.
There had been speculation that the incident in question was related to the Israeli contestant Eden Golan or her delegation, following a tense exchange at a press conference on Thursday, but the EBU said this is not the case.
Meanwhile, Bambie Thug’s participation in the final had remained an open question until the start of the event.
The singer said in a statement on social media just hours before the show started that they were awaiting word from the European Broadcasting Union on an alleged breach of rules by Israeli TV commentators during their semi-final performance.
According to RTÉ, a commentator on KAN warned TV viewers with children tuning in on Tuesday that Bambie Thug’s performance would be “the most scary” of the show.
They added that there was some controversy about the song in Ireland and that the singer also liked to “speak negatively about Israel” before adding, “prepare your curses”.
Bambie Thug did not give a performance at a dress rehearsal known as the Family Show on the afternoon of the final.
Following the final, Bambie Thug heavily criticised the EBU for its stance on Israel’s status in the Eurovision.
They also accused KAN of inciting violence against them.
“So now that I am free I can talk about everything right? KAN, the broadcaster, incited violence against me twice, three times,” they told reporters.
“We brought it up to the EBU, they said they’d follow up. They waited until the last minute, we still haven’t got a statement back,” they added.
“They allowed us to be scapegoats, allowed us to be the spokesperson for standing up for ourselves.”
Bambie Thug added that they hope Israel would not be allowed to partake next year due to the conduct of KAN.
The EBU today said its governing bodies and heads of delegations will review the events surrounding this year’s Eurovision at its next meeting to “move forward in a positive way and to ensure the values of the event are respected by everyone”.
Meanwhile, this year’s Eurovision Song Contest was watched by an average of 666,000 viewers on RTÉ One on Saturday night, representing a 54% of the available audience.
Some 19,000 viewers also watched on RTÉ One +1.
19,000 viewers watched on RTÉ One +1, while over on the RTÉ Player, there have been 221,000 streams to date from 124 countries.
Last year’s Eurovision final had an average of 362,000 viewers, with a 38% audience share.
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