Eurovision / Instagram
I do love me some Eurovision. But Norwegians have a really apt saying that aptly describes what happened at the over-the-top, very queer song competition this year: “helt Texas,” or “crazy,” “wild,” “unorganized.”
In case you couldn’t tell by my first paragraph, Eurovision is a rather queer thing. That matters for Eurovision, or specifically, the Eurovision Broadcast Union, which hosts the singing competition. And it also matters greatly in terms of ensuring the competition’s messaging and branding is tailored to its audience: the gays, theys and queers of the world. And one piece of recurring social media content, which technically broke the competition’s own rules, certainly was not.
But let’s back up for the Americans. The Eurovision Song Contest, or ESC. This beloved European competition features countries from around, you guessed it, Europe (plus Australia as of a few years ago) competing against each other on a global stage for the honor of being named best song among a jury of its peers of televoters from all over the world and the official Eurovision jury. So, essentially, it’s like American Idol but with singers from countries around Europe instead of around the nation. Whoever wins hosts the contest the following year.
Queer Content for a Queer Audience
Eurovision has been a queer haven since its beginning. In fact, queer performers can be traced back all the way to 1956, the first year of the competition, with France’s Dany Dauberson, an openly lesbian contestant. Dana International was the competition’s first trans woman in 1998, representing Israel. And this year, the competition saw its first nonbinary winner, Switzerland’s Nemo Mettler (who uses they/them pronouns). They made it to the contest's finale this year with another nonbinary performer, Ireland’s Bambie Thug (who also uses they/them pronouns). It was the first time in the contest’s history that two nonbinary individuals performed in the final.
Getting The Message Wrong
Now, with that, let’s talk about the content Eurovision posted that caused all the uproar. At the start of Eurovision, every contestant walks on stage with their country’s flag. When Nemo walked, they walked with the nonbinary flag in front of them and the Swiss flag behind them. This photo was then reposted across several Eurovision platforms, including Instagram.
While this may seem pretty innocuous, Eurovision has banned the nonbinary flag, and Nemo actually admitted to smuggling it into the contest. As the BBC reports, the EBU only permits "participating countries and the rainbow/pride flags.”
‘Eurovision Needs a Little Bit of Fixing’
The reason? Eurovision is supposed to stay “non-political,” according to the EBU. However, as many fans point out, the decision to ban pride flags that aren’t the rainbow seems pretty off-brand for a competition that’s been pretty foundationally queer since its beginning and relies on a sizeable queer audience to support them financially. In fact, after the competition, Nemo was asked how they felt about fans being told to throw out their nonbinary flags before entering the contest.
Their response? “I had to smuggle my [nonbinary] flag in because Eurovision said no, but I did it anyway, so I hope some people did that too. … Maybe Eurovision needs fixing a little bit too, every now and then.”
During the same press conference, Nemo also called the fact that they were shown with their flag on ESC live while fans were asked to throw theirs away a “double standard.”
It’s not a good look when, just hours after being crowned, at a press conference you’re sponsoring, your winner calls your organization out for hypocrisy. Nemo also mentions non-positive experiences they had throughout the competition, seemingly speaking about experiences related to their identity, something Bambie Thug also called the organization out for. There was also a video circling of Israel’s contestant misgendering Nemo and suggesting they “had issues” to work through, again seemingly a reference to their nonbinary identity.
While both nonbinary performers expressed frustrations over the EBU mishandling both the flag and the misgendering situations, the Eurovision social media pages were still flouting the nonbinary flag on several posts after Nemo’s eventual win. In fact, the day Eurovision ended, the organization also posted a photo of Nemo with the nonbinary flag with the caption “Non-binary finery 💖🇨🇭🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️” on X (formerly Twitter).
Again, fans were quick to point out the hypocrisy:
So, What Happened?
Well, that’s what we all want to know, right? Whoever did Eurovision’s social marketing really needed to catch up with the organization’s rules before they were allowed to post anything. Because it really is a slap in the face to tell your winner they can’t have a nonbinary flag, say to your followers they can’t have a nonbinary flag, and then reclaim an image of your winner very blatantly skating the rules for your own social media clout.
It’s one thing not to jump on stage and rip the flag out of Nemo’s hands during a live contest. That probably would not have gone over well. At all. Sure, I give them that. But to repost that image as part of your content strategy post-contest? It reads tone-deaf, especially since ESC’s core audience is queers, some of whom are coming from areas around the world where being queer is not celebrated the way it is, or is supposed to be, at something like a ESC venue. Was the EBU trying to go up in SERP rankings for nonbinary-related keywords? Did it care more about its branded content marketing than it did its audience?
Either way, it’s a valuable lesson for anyone or any company with deep roots in queer or other minority communities: You have the responsibility to your audience and your brand to ensure your values influence everything you do as a company, be it branded content, content strategy or SEO marketing.
Eurovision and the EBU lost sight of its audience when it decided to post photos of Nemo with the nonbinary flag for its benefit after telling them and other nonbinary ESC fans no, they could not bring the nonbinary flag onstage. This performative activism, hidden as content, tokenized Nemo’s nonbinary identity. True allyship goes beyond hollow gestures and social media posts. It requires listening to your audience's needs and concerns, such as taking concrete action to address them.
As Nemo said, it also highlighted Eurovision’s need for “fixing,” since its rulebook stated the nonbinary flag was against policy, creating the content fumble to begin with. In fact, some outlets are reporting that the EBU is already reviewing its flag policy ahead of the 2025 competition. However, it’s currently unclear whether that may include more inclusive flag pride policies. In a statement about the flag review, the EBU said, “Due to heightened geopolitical tensions, the flag policy was more rigorously enforced by security at this year’s event. We will look again at the flag policy for 2025 in conjunction with our new host broadcaster.”
Ultimately, Eurovision's misstep serves as a cautionary tale. It demonstrates that even well-intentioned organizations can fall short if they don't prioritize genuine connections with their audience and instead try to push content strategies superficially. Now, Eurovision has its work cut out to regain the trust of its famously fanatical queer fanbase, especially those who identify as nonbinary.
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