More than 1,000 executives and creators from the global entertainment industry have signed an open letter supporting Israel’s continued participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, in response to international campaigns urging the European Broadcasting Union to bar Israel from the event and calling on participating countries to withdraw.
According to the report, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain have already said they will not take part in the contest or broadcast it if Israel competes.
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Helen Mirren, Mila Kunis, Amy Schumer
(Photo: Evan Agostini, Chris Pizzello, Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
The letter was organized by Creative Community for Peace, a pro-Israel advocacy group, and signed by actors, musicians and senior Hollywood and music industry executives who said Eurovision should not be turned into a political tool.
“We believe that unifying events such as singing competitions are crucial to help bridge our cultural divides and unite people of all backgrounds through their shared love of music,” the signatories wrote. They added that they were “shocked and disappointed” by calls to boycott Israel “for responding to the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”
The letter also said those seeking to exclude Israel were undermining the spirit of the competition and turning it from a celebration of unity into a political instrument.
Among the signatories are actors Helen Mirren, Amy Schumer, Liev Schreiber, Mila Kunis, Mayim Bialik, Julianna Margulies, Debra Messing, Selma Blair, Ginnifer Goodwin, Emmy Rossum, Patricia Heaton, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Maureen Lipman, Joshua Malina, Jeremy Piven, Jerry O’Connell, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Anthony Edwards, Skylar Astin, Erin Foster and Gregg Sulkin.
Musicians who signed include Kiss frontman Gene Simmons, singer Boy George, Matisyahu, Disturbed lead singer David Draiman, songwriter Diane Warren and former Israeli Eurovision contestant Noa Kirel.
The letter was also signed by prominent industry figures including Haim Saban, producer Scooter Braun, television personality and manager Sharon Osbourne, director and screenwriter Matthew Weiner, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman and Universal Music Publishing Group Chair and CEO Jody Gerson.
Some of the signatories issued separate statements alongside the letter.
Simmons said supporters of excluding an Israeli singer from Eurovision were not promoting peace but “only further divide the world.”
Braun said “music is a place for unity, not division,” adding that it is a language meant to bring people together and that artists should never be discriminated against because of their identity, who they love or where they were born.
Bialik described calls to boycott Israeli artists as “abhorrent and shameful” and said singling out Israeli musicians in that way stains Eurovision’s unifying spirit.
Osbourne said attempts to exclude Israelis from the international stage “twist art into a tool of division and erode the shared humanity that the arts are meant to preserve.”
O’Connell also weighed in, saying no artist should be silenced because of where they come from and that boycott efforts “destroy the very connections the arts are meant to build.”
Despite the boycott calls, the European Broadcasting Union has said most of its members are not interested in voting on Israel’s exclusion and are allowing the contest to proceed as planned, according to the report.
At the same time, the union has changed its voting guidelines, possibly in response to allegations of irregularities involving Israeli voting in previous years.
Israel is expected to compete this year with the song Michelle, which combines Hebrew, French and English lyrics. Singer Noam Bettan is set to appear in the contest’s first semifinal on May 12, and if he advances, he will compete with the other 25 finalists in the grand final on May 16.