{"id":125636,"date":"2024-03-30T09:22:50","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T09:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/30\/uk-eurovision-entry-olly-alexander-rejects-call-to-boycott-contest\/"},"modified":"2024-03-30T09:22:50","modified_gmt":"2024-03-30T09:22:50","slug":"uk-eurovision-entry-olly-alexander-rejects-call-to-boycott-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/30\/uk-eurovision-entry-olly-alexander-rejects-call-to-boycott-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Eurovision Entry Olly Alexander Rejects Call To Boycott Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThis 12 months\u2019s UK Eurovision entry has rejected requires him to boycott this 12 months\u2019s Song Contest in protest at Israel being included within the competitors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tPop star <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/olly-alexander\/\" id=\"auto-tag_olly-alexander\" data-tag=\"olly-alexander\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Olly Alexander<\/a> responded Friday to an open letter from Queers for Palestine, signed by greater than 450 artists urging him to boycott the occasion happening in Sweden in May.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAlexander mentioned in a prolonged publish on X (previously Twitter) why he thought it was proper for him and different artists to stay within the Contest:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cAs a participant I\u2019ve taken a lot of time to deliberate over what to do and the options available to me. It is my current belief that removing myself from the contest wouldn\u2019t bring us any closer to our shared goal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHe added that he had mentioned the dilemma with entries from different nations, they usually had come to the identical conclusion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAlexander added that he supported all actions demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, the return of Israeli hostages and a journey in the direction of peace:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI hope and pray that our calls are answered and there is an end to the atrocities we are seeing taking place in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tEarlier within the day, Queers for Palestine\u2019s open letter had urged Alexander to stop the Contest, saying:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cWe share the vision of queer joy and abundance you\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cThe most powerful use of Olly\u2019s voice at this moment would be to use it to announce his withdrawal from Eurovision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDespite the <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/eurovision-song-contest\/\" id=\"auto-tag_eurovision-song-contest\" data-tag=\"eurovision-song-contest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eurovision Song Contest<\/a>\u2019s insistence on entries remaining apolitical, this 12 months\u2019s occasion has been shrouded in controversy. Israel\u2019s entry, initially titled <em>October Rain<\/em>, was deemed too political with its reference to the Hamas assault in October 2023. The nation has now amended its track and retitled it <em>Hurricane<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/entertainment-arts-68693181\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The BBC experiences the European Broadcasting Union, which runs the Contest, has responded to Alexander\u2019s assertion<\/a>, asserting:<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cWe firmly believe that the Eurovision Song Contest is a platform that should always transcend politics, promote togetherness and bring audiences together across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] This 12 months\u2019s UK Eurovision entry has rejected requires him to boycott this 12 months\u2019s Song Contest in protest at Israel being included within the competitors. Pop star Olly Alexander responded Friday to an open letter from Queers for Palestine, signed by greater than 450 artists urging him to boycott the occasion happening in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":125638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-125636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hollywood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}