Fans have called for a Eurovision boycott ahead of Ireland’s Eurosong competition airing tonight on RTÉ One.
Six contestants are set to compete on The Late Late Eurosong Special at 9:35 pm to determine who will go on to represent Ireland.
The six acts in the competition are Ailsha, Isabella Kearney, Erica Cody, JyellowL and ToshÃn, Bambie Thug, and Next in Line.
Ireland uses a three-way voting process to determine who will represent us at the Eurovision.
The winner is picked by a combination of the national jury and international jury’s rankings, along with the public vote.
The winner of Friday night’s Eurosong will then perform at the Eurovision Song Contest, taking place in Malmö, Sweden between May 7 and May 11 in front of an audience of over 160 million people worldwide.
However, a growing number of people are calling for Ireland to boycott the singing contest over its inclusion of Israel amid the war in Gaza.
A petition started in December to ban Isreal from competing in the Eurovision has received nearly 20,000 signatures.
Eurovision has exiled countries from the show before and in 2022 they excluded Russia from participating due to the invasion of Ukraine.
In response, Russia announced it would be suspending its membership in the European Broadcasting Union. Their participation in further Eurovision competitions will not occur until their membership is resumed.
Another petition asking RTÉ to boycott the show has amassed almost 3,000 signatures.
“If RTÉ participates in Eurovision with Israel in the competition they make licence payers of Ireland complicit in condoning the killing of more than 18,000 men, women children of Gaza,” wrote Olivia O’Sullivan, who launched the Change.org petition.
Separately, Irish Artists for Palestine launched an online petition demanding Ireland to call for the exclusion of Israel from the contest.
The group said: “The exclusion of Russia from Eurovision in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine was hugely significant and demonstrated Eurovision’s capacity to take an ethical stance on human rights.
“Martin Österdahl, Eurovision’s executive supervisor, previously spoke about this decision regarding Russia, stating, ‘When we say we are not political, what we always should stand up for are the basic and ultimate values of democracy’.”
The petition has received over 10,000 signatures in three days.
