1,100+ musicians call on fans to boycott Eurovision over Israel. Artists and cultural workers have accused the contest of helping whitewash Gaza “genocide”

More than 1,100 musicians and cultural workers have signed an open letter urging fans, performers, broadcasters, and crew to boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, accusing the event of “whitewashing” and normalizing Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza and Lebanon.

Eurovision is an annual televised song contest run by the European Broadcasting Union. The event has long marketed itself as a non-political spectacle, but it has repeatedly become a flashpoint over war, identity, and woke cultural messaging.

“This May, millions of people are expected to tune in to the 70th Eurovision Song Contest. For the third consecutive year, they’ll find Israel celebrated onstage despite its ongoing genocide in Gaza,” reads the letter published by the No Music For Genocide campaign. “As musicians and cultural workers… we reject Eurovision being used to whitewash and normalize Israel’s genocide, siege, and brutal military occupation against Palestinians.”

Among the best-known signatories are Brian Eno, Massive Attack, Sigur Rós, Idles, Mogwai, Macklemore, Kneecap, Primal Scream, Hot Chip, and Of Monsters and Men – as well as Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters and former Eurovision winners Emmelie de Forest and Charlie McGettigan.

The campaign has praised several national broadcasters, including those in Spain, Ireland, Iceland, Slovenia, and the Netherlands, for either threatening to boycott or already withdrawing over Israel’s inclusion.

Source: RT International.

Original poster via Instagram, resized by me.