Finnish rapper Jesse Markin, who is one of seven acts competing to represent Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest, has announced that he would not take part in the contest if Israel is allowed to participate.
Markin is one of seven finalists in this year's UMK Contest for New Music, which were announced on Wednesday night. He stated his position about Israel's ESC participation in an Instagram post on Thursday.
A number of people around the world have criticised the European Broadcasting Union, which organises ESC every year, for permitting Israel to participate in the contest — over concerns about the country's deadly actions in Gaza.
Around 1,400 professionals in the Finnish music industry have signed a petition calling for Yle to pressure the EBU to ban Israel from this year's song contest or to boycott the competition outright.
"It is not in accordance with our values that a country that commits war crimes and continues a military occupation is given a public stage to polish its image in the name of music. At the same time other participating countries end up giving their support to Israel’s policies. Yle was among the first to demand the banning of Russia from the 2022 contest and we expect the same active defending of values from Yle now as well," the petition reads.
Finnish public broadcaster Yle, which organises the UMK competition every year, has said that it is waiting for the EBU to announce its position on the matter.
Markin explains
"I feel at this stage that it is more important to make human rights issues visible. At the same time, I think that whoever ends up representing Finland should represent Finland specifically and listen to the voice of the Finnish people as well as their own voice. I feel that in this situation, many Finns agree on this issue," Markin said in Finnish.
"But for now, let's hope that the EBU will make some kind of decision about Israel, and that Finland will get to Malmö," he said, referring to the Swedish city that is scheduled to host the Eurovision Song Contest in May.
Sweden became the hosting country following Swedish artist Loreen's ESC victory in the UK last year.
UMK is not ESC
Yle's Finnish language news unit asked UMK's executive producer Anssi Autio whether Markin's announcement on Thursday would impact his participation in the Contest for New Music.
"It does not affect it, because UMK is a separate competition. I want to emphasise that, as Jesse said in his post, he is still 110 percent involved in UMK," Autio explained.
"Only one [UMK] act will go to Eurovision — the winner. UMK's final takes place in a month, and the situation might be very different and at that time the EBU might have already arranged things differently," Autio said.
However, Autio further noted that he did not know whether the EBU was making further decisions about Israel's participation at the ESC. He added that other countries were also starting their own Eurovision qualifiers.
"I don't think that Jesse Markin is somehow unique with this opinion," Autio said, adding that UMK has a contingency plan if the winner of the qualifier refuses to take part at Eurovision, for example over concerns about Israel's participation.
However, Autio did not reveal what the contingency plan involves.
Another UMK finalist, rapper Sini Sabotage, has also suggested that she would need to consider whether to participate at ESC if she wins the qualifier.
"I'm of the opinion that Israel should not take part in Eurovision, but unfortunately I can't make that decision myself. I've granted myself a grace period, as I'm just about to take part in the UMK contest. If I win, I will have to think about it. Under no circumstances do I want to support war," Sabotage told newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Wednesday.
The remaining five UMK finalist acts have said that they are waiting to hear about the EBU's and Yle's decisions.
More calls for ban or boycott
Hundreds of people in Finland have sent messages to Yle about Israel's participation, calling on the public broadcaster to boycott Eurovision this year if Israel is allowed to take part.
In December, Yle's Creative Director Ville Vilén said that the situation will be closely monitored, adding that he expected the EBU would make a decision about Israel's involvement.
"We will keep a close eye on the situation. I would think it likely that the EBU will have to take some kind of position on the matter. Then we will draw our own conclusions," Vilén said in December.
So far, the EBU has not indicated there were obstacles preventing Israel from taking part in the song contest. The EBU has pointed out that the ESC is a competition between broadcasting companies and not governments, noting that Israel has taken part in the contest for the past 50 years.
Headline edited on 12 January at 10:16 for clarification.
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