Eurovision Legends Break Ranks as Anger Toward the EBU Boils Over

You know que things aren’t going well at the EBU when the winners — the people the organisation usually wheels out as living proof of its legacy — start speaking out. And not gently. Three of them, Johnny Logan, Emmelie de Forest and Salvador Sobral, have all come forward in the past days, each basically saying: what on earth is the EBU doing?

The comments aren’t polished statements. They read more like the sort of thing artists say when they’ve had enough of being diplomatic.

Johnny Logan, sounding like the only adult in the room

Logan didn’t dress anything up. He said, more or menos: pretending everything is fine by letting Israel stay in the contest is absurd. You can almost hear the sigh in his voice.

His point wasn’t complicated: Eurovision kicked Russia out immediately back in 2022. Yet suddenly the festival is “not political” when it comes to Israel. Logan clearly isn’t buying it. And honestly, neither is half of Europe.

He also put the weight where he thinks it should be: on the EBU.
As in, this wasn’t a burden individual broadcasters should have had to carry. They shouldn’t have been put in the position of withdrawing one by one just to make a point.

He did make it clear he’s not attacking Israelis as people. His criticism is aimed higher up.

Emmelie de Forest, equally unimpressed — just in a more Scandinavian way

De Forest said she genuinely thought the vote would go the other way. And it didn’t. Not even close.
She sounded disappointed, which —coming de una artista que no suele meterse en polémicas— tells you something.

She also said what a lot of people is thinking about: the EBU hid behind a procedural vote on rule changes so they wouldn’t have to deal with the actual crisis.
Because that’s what it looks like. A bureaucratic shield.

And she didn’t sugarcoat the situation in Gaza. She said it aloud: if Israel is allowed to compete while tens of thousands of civilians have died, then something in the moral equation is broken. And if one side gets in, she argued, maybe the other side — Palestine — should be invited too. It’s blunt, but she wasn’t trying to win a popularity contest.

Salvador Sobral aims the criticism at home

Sobral didn’t even bother camouflaging his frustration.
Portugal staying in Eurovision this year? To him, that was the wrong call.
He called it political cowardice. You rarely hear an artist talk about their own country’s institutions like that.

Still, he went out of his way to defend Festival da Canção. He loves it. He wants it to continue.
But he believes the winner shouldn’t be sent to Eurovision under the current circumstances. Let the festival shine on its own, he said. No need to drag the artist into the mess.

And he made one last point: nobody asked the Portuguese public what they thought.
And he’s right — nobody did.

The EBU now has a credibility problem, not just a PR one

Losing four countries is bad.
But losing the confidence —and patience— of artists who helped define Eurovision’s modern identity is far worse.

Their statements weren’t rehearsed. They didn’t sound like “messaging”.
They sounded like exhausted adults calling out a system that doesn’t know cómo manejar sus propias contradicciones.

Eurovision will go ahead in Vienna. Of course it will.
But the idea that everything is “fine” has been blown apart — not by fans, not by broadcasters, but by the winners themselves.

Source: Vertele