Following the conclusion of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has released an official statement addressing the behaviors of delegations in Malmo.
The statement was issued to the The Mirror and the Irish Independent stating that they regret that “some delegations” did not behave within the spirit of the contest rules and during their respective broadcasts.
The full statement from the EBU was as such:
“We regret that some delegations at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö didn’t respect the spirit of the rules and the competition both onsite and during their broadcasts,
We spoke to a number of delegations during the event regarding various issues that were brought to our attention.
The EBU’s governing bodies will, together with the heads of delegations, review the events surrounding the ESC in Malmö to move forward in a positive way and to ensure the values of the event are respected by everyone.
Individual cases will be discussed by the event’s governing body, the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group made up of representatives from participating broadcasters, at its next meeting.”
The statement does not specifically mention delegations or broadcasters by name, but it has been well documented that complaints were raised by Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom regarding the behavior of the Israeli broadcaster and delegation.
These talks ran late into the night on Friday and the artists even threatened to withdraw from the final.
Just recently, the guitarist for Norway’s representative Gåte revealed that the band also had considered walking away from Eurovision following a series of confrontations with the contest organizers before the grand final.
The Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS was also in conversations with the EBU well into Saturday morning to discuss alternatives to the incident that ultimately got representative Joost Klein disqualified from the contest.
It is currently unknown if additional incidents were reported to the EBU during the duration of the contest.
