this post was submitted on 19 May 2025
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Eurovision Song Contest

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[Satire] European fury as Austria wins song contest that was supposed to be rigged for Israel (www.normalisland.co.uk)
submitted 2 months ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/eurovision@lemmy.world
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After trying and failing to steal Eurovision last year, Israel came back with a plan to rig the competition at the second attempt, but outrageously it was foiled by Austria. Israel wanted to take Eurovision like it was a house owned by Palestinians, but Austria had the audacity to win Israel's prize and it did not even resort to cheating. Truly, this is the worst thing Austria has done since it gave the world Hitler.

Eurovision seemed to be going so well when organisers hid the fact everyone hates Israel by replacing boos with AI-generated cheers. You know those divorced men who can't get a girlfriend so they hire someone to be their date? It was kind'a like that. Israel paid for a fake audience so it didn't look like a massive loser.

Obviously, a fake audience wasn't going to be enough to win, but Israel had other tricks up its sleeve. It was supposed to keep the next part of its plan secret, but the people who brag about their war crimes on TikTok aren't the brightest bunch. Israelis couldn't help boasting of their heroic efforts which involved using multiple credit cards to vote hundreds of times in different countries. Israel has demanded an investigation into how Austria won, even though Israel cheated.

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[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 27 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Is this actually satire? It’s a reasonable telling of events.

[–] DeathsEmbrace@lemm.ee 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Were living in the golden timeline. We cant tell satire from reality.

[–] justsomeguy@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

The age of men is over. The time of the memes has come.

[–] makyo@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I posted this in another thread:

I'm really REALLY curious about the shenanigans that lead to the Israel act racking up a crazy number of 12s from the public voting last night. I don't have the numbers but I also don't remember so many acts getting 0s from the public as yesterday's event.

Considering her performance was mediocre (the judges sure thought so as well) and the public perception isn't all positive, especially amongst the kind of people I'd imagine would be the largest part of the Eurovision audience - it sure seems like some kind of leaning on the scales was likely. I think it'd be worth looking into anyway.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Putting "satire" in front of political commentary to protect it from moderation has long roots in history.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 8 points 2 months ago

The high popular vote for a massively unpopular Israel can be explained as an artefact of Eurovision's voting system: it suffers from the disadvantages of first-past-the-post, and if a country is most of the focus of discussion, it has to only be 1/25 as popular as it is unpopular, as the vote against it is spread between other contestants. Given that most people don’t vote and you can vote as many times as you can afford to pay (well, 20 times per phone number, but SIM cards are cheap), that escalates it.

In fact, it is a plausible hypothesis that Israel won by enough of a margin to win the contest (on the strength of a small number of motivated voters and a split opposition), but the EBU doctored the result to give Austria a narrow win, as having 2026 hosted on the ruins of Gaza by the perpetrators of the genocide would have destroyed the event, if not the EBU itself.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Does Israel actually compete in Eurovision? (Or did they before this latest shit?) Do you not have to be a European country to compete?

[–] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yes, Israel have won in the past. Australia also participates. Russia did, too, until kicked out due to war crimes. So, it’s more odd that Israel stays in due to war crimes, than geographical location.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Israel is the head sponsor of Eurovision through a company called MoroccanOil (Which is Israeli not Moroccan)

[–] justsomeguy@lemmy.world -1 points 2 months ago

oy vey

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Being a European colony is enough. Even Australia competes. Israel is the head sponsor of Eurovision. They competed for quite a few years.

[–] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 months ago

EBU members are allowed to participate, for example Morocco participated in the past, and Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan participated this year and aren't really located in Europe. Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan could also participate, but never have. AFAIK most the countries outside Europe that could participate, do not because of Israel.

[–] Oha@lemmy.ohaa.xyz 1 points 2 months ago

Nope. Every country thats part of the EBU is allowed to compete.