It was another unsuccessful year for Great Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest.
The grand finale of this year’s competition took place tonight (May 11), with Olly Alexander representing the British flag with his song ‘Dizzy’.
However, after taking the jury and audience votes into account, Olly ended up in 18th place with a total of 46 points (the audience gave 0 points) – ahead of last year’s entry by Mae Muller, who came second to last with 24 points.
The winner of this year’s competition was Switzerland, whose entry Nemo took first place with the song “The Code” with 591 points.
Today, Dutch competitor Joost Klein was disqualified from the final after police “investigated a complaint lodged by a female member of the production team following a semi-final this week”. Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS later said that “the exclusion is disproportionate to this incident”.
In a statement, they added: “After last Thursday’s performance, an incident occurred. Contrary to clear agreements, Joost was filmed as he was coming off the stage and had to rush to the artist’s room. At that moment, Joost made it clear several times that he did not want to be filmed.
“This was not respected. This resulted in a threatening movement by Joost towards the camera. Joost did not touch the camerawoman. This incident was reported, after which an investigation was launched by the EBU and the police.”
Due to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Israel and Palestine, this year’s Eurovision Song Contest was controversial.
The long-standing conflict between Israel and Palestine flared up again after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2024, leading to repeated attacks by Israel. There are continued calls for a ceasefire, including from the United Kingdom, which voted for a ceasefire in the UN Security Council in March.
Some called for Israel to be excluded from the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 and some fans boycotted the event altogether.
Eurovision participants, including Briton Olly Alexander made a statement called for a ceasefire, and other celebrities have made similar calls, including Mean Girls’ Reńee Rapp, Euphoria star Hunter Schafer and Marvel actor Mark Ruffalo. In February, Mark Ruffalo told Deadline: “We understand that this bombing is not going to get us anywhere, we are not going to bomb our way to peace, and all we’re saying is, what’s wrong with giving a ceasefire a chance?”
Screenwriter and director Jonathan Glazer also spoke at the Academy Awards in March in the category “Best International Feature Film” about his film “The Zone of Interest”, which shows a family living next to a concentration camp in Auschwitz.
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