Last month, Olly Alexander, the British synthpop artist who used to document as Years & Years, launched the Danny L Harle-produced “Dizzy.” It’s the primary single that Alexander has put out beneath his personal title, and it additionally serves because the UK entry for this 12 months’s Eurovision Song Contest. Plenty of individuals want to change that. This 12 months’s Eurovision has come beneath main fireplace for permitting Israel to take part even through the nation’s marketing campaign of genocide in Gaza. People have known as for Olly Alexander to boycott the competition, and he has now put out a press release explaining why he gained’t do this.
The European Broadcasting Union, Eurovision’s governing physique, beforehand excluded Russia through the invasion of Ukraine, nevertheless it’s decreed that Israel will probably be allowed into this 12 months’s context. That announcement got here after Robyn, Fever Ray, and a thousand different Swedish artists signed a press release demanding Israel’s exclusion. (Sweden is that this 12 months’s Eurovision host nation.” Earlier this week, the group Queers For Palestine revealed an open letter calling for Olly Alexander to withdraw from the competition: “We share the vision of queer joy and abundance you’ve offered through your music, and share your belief in collective liberation for all. In this spirit, we ask you to heed the Palestinian call to withdraw from Eurovision.” This morning, Olly Alexander shared his response.
On Instagram this morning, Olly Alexander posted a shared assertion from himself and a bunch of eight different Eurovision contributors from totally different nations:
We wish to start by acknowledging the privilege of collaborating in Eurovision.
In gentle of the present scenario within the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and notably in Gaza, and in Israel, we don’t really feel snug being silent. It is essential for us to face in solidarity with the oppressed and talk our heartfelt want for peace, a direct and lasting ceasefire, and the protected return of all hostages. We stand united in opposition to all types of hate, together with antisemitism and islamophobia.
We firmly imagine within the unifying energy of music, enabling folks to transcend variations and foster significant conversations and connections.
We really feel that it’s our responsibility to uphold this area, with a powerful hope that it’ll encourage better compassion and empathy.
In a separate put up, Olly Alexander wrote that he’d responded on to Queers For Palestine, and he shared what he wrote in his response:
I wholeheartedly help motion being taken to demand a direct and everlasting ceasefire in Gaza, the return of all hostages and security and safety of all residents in Palestine and Israel.
I do know some folks will select to boycott this 12 months’s Eurovision and I perceive and respect their resolution.
As a participant I’ve taken numerous time to deliberate what to do and the choices accessible to me. It is my present perception that eradicating myself from the competition wouldn’t carry us any nearer to our shared purpose.
Instead, I’ve been talking with among the different EV contestants and we’ve determined that by collaborating we are able to use our platform to return collectively and name for peace.
I hope and pray that our calls are answered and there may be an finish to the atrocities that we’re seeing going down in Gaza.
I’d prefer to thank the various signatories of this letter whose work I deeply admire and respect and hope that we are able to contribute to work collectively in creating a greater world for all of us.
In December, some conservatives known as for the BBC to fireplace Olly Alexander as this 12 months’s Eurovision consultant as a result of he’d signed a Voices4London open letter calling Israel an “apartheid regime.”