EBU gets tough on Ukraine

It is the controversy that launched a thousand headlines, turning the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest into a political fiasco in the eyes of millions.
And today Ukraine’s three-year ban on Russia’s Eurovision 2017 singer Julia Samoylova flared up once again with the news that the EBU may temporarily exclude Ukraine from Eurovision.

Speaking to German-language newspaper Sonntagsblick, the EBU’s czarina lashed out at Ukrainian officials.
“The behaviour of Ukraine is absolutely unacceptable,” she said.

The 56-year-old power broker is currently overseeing negotiations with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Hrojsman and President Petro Poroshenko to reach a “satisfactory solution”.

They are the only two men who could reverse the ban on Julia, making it possible for her to compete at Eurovision.

“I deeply regret the fact that the ESC is being abused for political action,” she said. “The Eurovison Song Contest is supposed to delight and bring together millions of people; it must not be used to incite them against each other.”

Deltenre’s comments follow weeks of criticism that the EBU hasn’t been tough enough on Ukraine.

A ban on Ukraine?

And, perhaps to prove that she’s serious about creating a space for Julia at the contest, she suggested that sanctions against Ukraine are not out of the picture.

According to Blick, Deltenre could temporarily exclude Ukraine from Eurovision if a satisfactory outcome is not reached, though the paper did not clarify whether this referred to current or future editions of the contest, nor has this been publicly confirmed elsewhere.

The ongoing drama is not, of course, the first instance of politics leading to withdrawal or exclusion.