The European Commission has expressed anger over a ban on EU flags at the Eurovision Song Contest and demands explanations.
The allegations, made by several spectators who attended the Grand Final on Saturday and were told off for carrying the flags, quickly turned viral and prompted a stern rebuke from Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas.
“Eurovision is first and foremost a celebration of European spirit, of our European diversity and talent. The EU flag is a symbol of this,” Schinas said on X on Saturday evening.
“Less than a month to the European elections, there should be no obstacles, big or small, to celebrating what unites all Europeans.”
There was some kind of incident between the artist and a camera woman. The exact details aren’t public, AFAIK.
This was backstage btw. Idk if raising your fist as a gesture against a camera, when you told them to fuck off multiple times is deserving of the kind of shit he is getting. But who knows, i wasnt there.
Not wanting to be filmed backstage at an event seems pretty normal IMO as backstage is where a lot of prep work happens. It probably not safe for untrained personnel and/or might reveal things that people don’t want on camera (like costume malfunctions that are being worked out)
Also, it was literally seconds after he had finished singing an ode to his dead dad, so a very emotionally raw moment.
Which is why he had an agreement with everyone that he was not to be filmed at that time. An agreement that the obnoxious camera woman had agreed to prior to figuratively pissing all over it.
Obnoxious camera woman? You don’t think she had a producer in her ear telling her what to do?
Whether someone else was telling her to or not, she was behaving obnoxiously. “Just following orders” is no excuse.
There are absolutely circumstances where I’d give someone a pass, even if what they did is poor behavior. I don’t know anything about her, but we’re talking about one of the largest TV events in Europe and there’s enormous pressure on every crew involved. You have to be a really gutsy and probably very experienced motherfucker to stop and say no to the producer in that moment when the stakes are so high. Even more so if you’re a woman.
I get what you’re saying and in most cases I’d agree.
In this case, though, it was a clear invasion of his privacy and disrespect of him as a person.
To ignore his repeated requests to leave him alone in a very vulnerable moment, after you’ve already agreed to along with the rest of the press pool, is not just poor behavior. It’s abuse befitting the worst paparazzi sleazeballs.
Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet claims that he destroyed the camera.