Written by No Music for Genocide, the campaign that has rallied hundreds of artists to pull their music from streaming services in Israel, has released an open letter calling for a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest over its decision to allow Israel to compete. Released in partnership with the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel, the letter is signed by Brian Eno, Massive Attack, Kneecap, Idles, Sigur Rós, Erika de Casier, Dry Cleaning, Mogwai, Macklemore, Primal Scream, Hot Chip, Smerz, Black Country, New Road, and hundreds more. “For the third consecutive year,” the letter states, Israel will be “celebrated onstage despite its ongoing genocide in Gaza, while Russia remains banned for its illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
The signees call for “public broadcasters, performers, screening party organizers, crew, and fans” to boycott the song contest until the European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, bans Israeli broadcaster KAN. “We refuse to be silent when Israel’s genocidal violence soundtracks and silences Palestinian lives,” the letter reads. “When children in Israeli prisons endure beatings for humming a tune. When all that’s left of nearly every stage, studio, bookshop and university in Gaza is piles of rubble, under which slaughtered bodies still await recovery and proper burial.”
Broadcasters in Spain, Ireland, Iceland, Slovenia, and Netherlands have already pulled out in protest of Israel’s inclusion, the letter notes. It concludes, “As artists, we recognise our collective agency—and the power of refusal. We refuse to be silent. We refuse to be complicit.”
Kneecap added: “Russia was banned from Eurovision in 2022. Israel has been murdering Palestinians for decades and is now committing genocide—and for the third year running, they’re welcomed back onto the stage. That’s not neutrality. That’s a choice.” They continued, “We’ve paid a price for speaking out—lost gigs, court cases, visa bans—and we’d do it all again tomorrow. Silence is complicity. We stand with No Music for Genocide and every artist, fan and broadcaster who refuses to let the world’s biggest music event be used to whitewash genocide.”
Last year, Caribou, Hayley Williams, Dry Cleaning, Lorde, Björk, and more participated in the No Music for Genocide streaming embargo, geo-blocking their music from Israel.
