Como se dice “sore loser”?
That’s the question Eurovision fans, whose votes put Israel’s Eurovision song “New Day Will Rise” by Yuval Raphael in first place with the audience, after the Spanish Broadcasting Authority (RTVE) released a statement Sunday that it intends to appeal to the European Broadcasting Authority (EBU) demanding a reassessment of the audience voting system used in Eurovision.
But the director of Eurovision, Martin Green, countered RTVE’s request by saying, “The televoting system currently used in Eurovision is considered the most advanced in the world today, combining advanced verification processes, data security mechanisms and analytical review of voting patterns. there is no suspicion of bias or irregularities in the awarding of points – not even in relation to the full score given to Israel by Spanish viewers.”
Spanish televoters gave Israel “douze points,” the highest score, which was part of Israel’s 297 audience votes.
Spain’s national jury did not give Israel any points, but twelve countries plus the "rest of the world" vote gave Israel their top scores.
Spain’s song, “Esa Diva” by Melody, received only nine points from televoters and no “douze points” from any national juries. It came in 24th out of 37 countries.
Spain's Eurovision broadcast contained political messaging on Gaza war
Spanish hosts Julia Varela and Tony Aguilar chose to comment on the war between Hamas and Israel during the second semifinal, saying, "The victims of the Israeli attacks in Gaza now exceed 50,000, including more than 15,000 children, according to the United Nations."
Flagrantly ignoring the warning of the EBU not to inject political messages into the song contest, the Spanish national public broadcaster aired the following message before the final began: “In the face of human rights, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine."
On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, also jumped into the Eurovision fray, putting aside less pressing responsibilities to call for Israel to be banned, saying that the EBU has a "double standard" because it allows Israel to participate but banned Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The EBU has repeatedly said in statements that Eurovision is a competition between public broadcasters, not governments, and that Israel’s public broadcaster did break any EBU rules, while Russia’s did.
The Spanish prime minister and the country's national broadcaster weren’t the only ones expressing outrage about how Israel fared.
Another disgruntled also-ran, Erika Vikman of Finland, whose song, “Ich Kommen,” came in 11th, was quoted by the website Euromix as saying, “Today, I read in the Finnish media that Israel managed to mobilize an enormous number of votes. I think it’s really unfair.” Finland’s public broadcaster, Yle, said the broadcaster would ask the EBU to consider updating rules that allowed a single viewer to vote up to 20 times during the final.
Perhaps Spain and Finland were simply heeding the advice in “New Day Will Rise,” not to cry alone.
But not everyone begrudged Raphael her win or wanted her to be banned. According to a report on the website, EurovisionFun.com, journalist Dr. Martin Gak reported in the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet that the German public broadcaster ARD threatened to withdraw from the contest if the EBU decided to exclude Israel.
Gak cited an EBU source that claimed that ARD pressured other participating public broadcasters, saying if Israel were barred, Germany would also withdraw.
Raphael, for her part, praised the Eurovision winner, “Wasted Love” by Austria’s JJ, calling it, “Incredible.”
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.