Windows95man, the act chosen to represent Finland at this year's Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), has decided to take part in the competition despite controversy surrounding Israel's participation.
Windows95man, Teemu Keisteri, and guest vocalist Henri Piispanen, confirmed on Tuesday that they have decided to bring their song No Rules! to the ESC in Sweden in May. The pair won the chance to represent Finland after beating out six other acts at the UMK24 competition.
However, the pair reiterated their opposition to Israel's participation in the competition and said they have started reaching out to other representatives to put pressure on Eurovision's organisers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
In a statement published on Tuesday, Keisteri and Piispanen said that in their opinion, the only correct solution that Eurovision's organisers could reach would be to ban Israel from the competition.
"However, we do not feel that we could influence [such a decision] by not taking part," their statement read.
Music industry pros in Finland and other countries have called on participants to boycott ESC this year unless Israel is banned from taking part in the contest, due to the country's deadly actions in Gaza.
As recently as last week Keisteri told Helsingin Sanomat that Windows95man's participation at ESC was still up in the air. The act was chosen to represent Finland at UMK24, the Contest for New Music, which is organised by public broadcaster Yle.
But even as the national final was taking place in Tampere earlier this month, hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered around the city's Nokia Arena, calling for Israel to be banned from Eurovision.
Yle has also faced pressure to boycott this year's ESC. A group of roughly 1,500 music pros submitted a petition demanding the national broadcaster to pressure the EBU on banning Israel's participation at the contest.
In the Tuesday statement, Yle's Director of Creative Content and Media and Editor-in-Chief Ville Vilén said Yle has decided to respect the EBU's ability to evaluate the TV companies participating in the contest.
He said that Yle understands there are different and valid points of view among those involved and that the public broadcaster has informed the EBU about the discussion in Finland as well as the views of Finland's ESC act.
"We hope that the situation in the Middle East will calm down as soon as possible," Vilén said in the release.
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