UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR Zelenskyy will not be able to deliver a video message at the Eurovision final, the song contest’s organiser has said.
The English city of Liverpool is hosting the musical extravaganza after Britain agreed to accommodate the song contest instead of 2022 winner Ukraine.
The final tomorrow is set to include a special tribute to Ukraine, with 11 of its artists performing including last year’s winner Kalush Orchestra.
Video clips will be shown during the evening to showcase different parts of the country.
But the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said ”strict rules” prevented it from allowing the Ukrainian leader to speak.
“One of the cornerstones of the contest is the non-political nature of the event,” the EBU said.
“This principle prohibits the possibility of making political or similar statements as part of the contest.”
It added that Zelenskyy’s request to address the audience, “whilst made with laudable intentions, regrettably cannot be granted as it would be against the rules of the event”.
Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra won last year in Italy following a politically-charged buildup to the event that saw Russia barred from competing and Ukraine’s original selection for the contest – Alina Pash – pulling out due to claims she had illegally entered Crimea in the years after Moscow’s 2014 invasion of the territory.
The group, who as men of fighting age had to be given special dispensation to leave the country for Eurovision, had long been considered favourites to claim the top prize.
It’s typically the case that whichever country wins the Eurovision also wins the right to host it the following year.
For obvious reasons, that’s not happening this time around; organisers the EBU made the decision to seek another host country based on what it described as a ‘severe risk’ of attacks by aircraft or missiles in Ukraine.
The UK was named as host nation last July in part because its 2022 act, Sam Ryder, came second in the contest.
Includes reporting by - © AFP 2023 and Daragh Brophy at the Eurovision in Liverpool
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