The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which oversees the annual Eurovision Song Contest, announced this week that artists at this year’s event will only be allowed to display the flags of the country they are representing – preventing them from waving regional flags, Palestinian flags, and flags representing the LGBTQIA2+ community.
The rules do allow audience members at the venue hosting the competition – this year taking place in Basel, Switzerland – to bring any flags they want, allowing for representation and protest. Exceptions exist in the rules outlawing audience members from bringing any symbols illegal to display in Switzerland — flags representing terrorist organizations, or any insignia promoting racism, discrimination, hatred, or violence.
Eurovision has explicit rules in place banning contestants from singing songs deemed “political.” Rules about the display of political images, including national flags, often change depending on the host nation and the political climate as the EBU assesses it in any given year.
“The ESC is a non-political event,” the official contest rules read. “All Participating Broadcasters, including the Host Broadcaster, shall be responsible … to make sure that the ESC shall in no case be politicized and/or instrumentalized and/or otherwise brought into disrepute in any way.”
“The revised rules specify that fans can bring and display any flag that does not fit one of the following descriptions, according to a document obtained by the Danish national broadcaster,” the Times of Israel reported on Sunday. “Flags with racist and/or discriminatory content, including symbols that incite hatred or violence; flags that may be considered offensive or defamatory; and flags with symbols of banned terrorist organizations.”
“This new rule prohibits artists from displaying all Pride flags, the Palestinian flag or any other flag not belonging to their country of origin,” the newspaper added.
The rules will be significantly less strict for audience members, however, allowing the presence of the Palestinian flag in the stadium during the competition, just not displayed by competitors.
The rules also limit displays during a traditional parade ceremony that opens the contest. In this case, artists will be given the flag of the country they represent and only allowed to show that flag.
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition created in the decade following the end of World War II to foster cultural tolerance and European identity, in part as an attempt to prevent the rise of ethnic and racial hatred that preceded the war. The modern iteration of the contest includes 37 participants, most of them European countries. The contest begins with national competitions to choose a representative, typically as early as January the year before, who then go on to compete in two semi-finals and one Grand Final, this year scheduled for May 17.
Some competitors from outside Europe include Australia – invited to participate in response to the popularity of the event in the country – and Asian nations such as Azerbaijan. Israel has participated in the contest since 1973 and won four times, prompting widespread calls from antisemitic, anti-Israel, and pro-Palestinian activists for years to have the country removed.
Those voices were especially loud during the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, inflamed by both the aftermath of the genocidal massacre of Israelis by Hamas on October 7 of the prior year and the status of the host city – Malmö, Sweden – as an Islamic immigrant enclave. Multiple reports surfaced from inside the contest of artists from other nations antagonizing the Israeli delegation; the artists themselves claimed representatives of the Israeli network KAN made them uncomfortable. Outside the venue, thousands of anti-Israel protesters, joined by radical leftist personalities such as climate alarmism advocate Greta Thunberg, demanded the country be expelled from the contest.
Contest organizers banned audience members from bringing Palestinian flags into the contest last year, many of them complaining of their confiscation before entering the arena. This year will mark a departure from that policy.
While competitors were not allowed to make displays of solidarity with the Palestinian Authority or Hamas during the contest, one singer who performed at the event – past competitor for Sweden Eric Saade – wore a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian scarf, on his arm during his performance. Saade did not make any political statements or say anything about the item, but received a stern condemnation from the EBU.
“All performers are made aware of the rules of the contest,” the EBU said in a statement to the Times of Israel. “We regret that Eric Saade chose to compromise the non-political nature of the event.”
Saade later issued a statement clarifying that he is Palestinian and was wearing a scarf his father gave him.
“This was just my way of showing a part of my origin, which is important in a world like this. I got that keffiyeh from my dad when I was a little boy, to never forget where the family comes from,” Saade wrote in a social media post. “Back then, I didn’t know it would one day be called a ‘political symbol by EBU, It’s like calling the ‘Swedish Dala horse’ a political symbol.”
Saade blamed “racism” for the condemnation of his display.
Reports on the new rules suggest that preventing harassment of this year’s Israeli contestant, October 7 survivor Yuval Rafael, is the primary objective following the situation last year. The strict rules also affect several contestants this year in apparently unforeseen ways that are not related to the Middle East. The contestant for Denmark, singer Sissal, lamented in a social media post this weekend that she will not be allowed to display the flag of her home region, the Faroe Islands, because it is not a national flag.
“The situation with the Faroese flag can’t be compared to having the flag of a country you originate from but have since moved away from,” Sissal said. “The Faroe Islands … can’t represent themselves at Eurovision because the Faroe Islands formally belong to the Kingdom of Denmark, although they have extensive self-government.”
“All Faroese people are born as Danish citizens – that’s why it’s a shame that I’m not allowed to bring the Faroese flag,” she explained.
Eurovision often includes competitors with diverse backgrounds or who are not representing the nation of their birth for various reasons. The act widely considered the frontrunner to win this year’s contest, the Finnish comedy band KAJ, is representing Sweden in the competition as its members are Swedish-speaking Finns and entered Sweden’s national contest to partake in the tournament. They will not be allowed to wave a Finnish flag at the event.
Sweden has won Eurovision seven times, tied for the most wins with Ireland.
The Irish contestant this year, singer Emmy, is also native to Norway and will not be able to wave that flag at the contest. Emmy’s song, “Laika Party,” is an ode to the Moscow street dog Laika, who became the first dog to orbit the earth from space and died in horrific conditions as part of a communist experiment for the Soviet Union. The EBU, which banned Russia from the contest after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, did not disqualify the song for political content, but the flag rules would also not allow Emmy to display the flag of Laika’s defunct home country.
While the rules about flags are stricter for competitors this year, the limits on outside flags during the flag parade did affect competitors in 2024. Notably, the winner of that contest, Switzerland’s Nemo, displayed a “non-binary” flag during the flag parade and later explained, “I had to smuggle my (non-binary) flag in because Eurovision said no, and I did it anyway.” Nemo’s winning song, “The Code,” is about rejecting one’s sex in favor of “non-binary” identity.
The EBU has previously been welcoming to rainbow flags for LGBTQIA2+ representation but limited displays of niche sexual identity flags, such as the “non-binary” flag.
