The majority of artists who participate in the Festival da Canção, which designates each year in Portugal the country’s representative at Eurovision, assured this Wednesday that They will not participate in the European competition in 2026 if they are elected.
In a statement, eleven of the 16 participants The organizers of the national competition, which will take place in March next year, have declared their refusal to participate in Eurovision because they understand that “the country and the world are experiencing times when silence” means being complicit in a “tragedy”.
THE signatories They are the members of the group Bateu Matou, Cristina Branco, Djodje, Evaya, Inês Sousa, the musicians of Marquise, Francisco Fontes, Gonçalo Gomes, Jacaréu, Never Mates or Mandarim and Rita Dias, who published the statement on their social networks.
The others five unsigned artists the letters are André Amaro, Bandidos do Cante, Agridoce, Sandrino and Dinis Mota.
“Despite the ban on Russia’s participation in the 2022 edition of Eurovision by political reasons (the invasion of Ukraine), we were surprised to see that the same measure was not applied to Israel which, according to the UN, is committing acts of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza,” the artists criticized.
To show later “perplexity” over the voting direction of the Portuguese public broadcasterRadio and Television of Portugal (RTP), during the last general assembly of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), during which the permanence of Israel in the next edition of Eurovision, which will be held in Austria, was ratified.
After the vote, five countries have already announced that they will not be present at Eurovision 2026: Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, Netherlands and Iceland. RTP has confirmed that it will be present at the European music competition, although workers at the public broadcaster condemned the decision last week.
About The Author
