Free Republic

Hungary has pulled out of the Eurovision Song Contest amid speculation that the annual competition is too queer for the country’s pro-family government. Hungary has not given an official reason for the withdrawal. However, a source at Hungary’s broadcaster, MTVA, reportedly said staff believed the move was about Eurovision’s association with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transvestite (LGBT) decadence and degeneracy. “I was not surprised. It comes from the institutionalised culture of MTVA,” the anonymous source told a British newspaper in a report published Wednesday. The source said no explanation had been provided internally, but that positive coverage of queers issues...

As the annual Eurovision Song Contest approaches, the Stockholm theater hosting the event has published the rules about waving flags, and enumerated several flags that will be forbidden. Flags with commercial messages, those that discriminate against sectors of the population, those that disrupt the broadcast and those with messages in languages other than English will not be permitted. The specific list of banned lags include those of Kosovo, Basque, the Crimean Peninsula, the PLO, Donetsk, Northern Cyprus, Transnistria and ISIS. Saeb Erekat, a senior member of the Palestinian Authority, sent a letter in response, demanding an apology from the organizers...

AZERBAIJAN has scored a spectacular first win in the 56th Eurovision Song Contest, Europe's annual pop extravaganza watched by tens of millions of people. Eurovision tradition dictates that Azerbaijan's victory means the 2012 competition will be held in the resource-rich former Soviet republic often criticised by campaign groups for its poor human rights record. "Now Europe will really learn about Azerbaijan," accountant Sakina Akhmedova said yesterday in the republic, a 9.1-million-strong mainly Muslim but officially secular state on the Caspian Sea. "It's a great advertisement for a country like this." Ignoring heavy rain as they danced, chanted and waved flags,...

Finnish Eurovision winners Lordi have been defended against claims of Satanism by their country's ambassador to the UK. "This is entertainment," Jaakko Laajava told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "Let's not take this too seriously." "They have produced an album called The Devil Is A Loser and maybe that tells a little bit about this," he continued. The mask-wearing hard rock band have been accused of promoting Satanism by some conservative Greek organisations. We are all very thrilled and encouraged by this Jaakko Laajava, Finnish ambassador Their win "shows that people are seeking something to prop themselves on and fill...

Speaking of Tatu's performance [at the European Music Festival]-they gave a horrible performance. However their song souded very modern on the recently released compact disc of the festival.Eurovision songs are not primitive , they are competently done, but always sterotypically the same- typical melodies, typical tunes, a bit of Latino style throw in to make them a little bit livelier. Tatu's performance was not mischevious: the two girls did not kiss each other, they didn't take their clothes off, they did not wear tops with obscene writing on them.The voting was totally unbalanced though. Great Britain did not vote for...

Whistle blown on Eurovision singer linked to neo-Nazis Andrew Osborn in BrusselsThursday February 20, 2003The GuardianBelgium's participation in this year's Eurovision song contest ignited controversy last night when the state security service accused a singer of having links with the country's neo-Nazi movement. Anxious to spare the nation's blushes, the Sûreté de l'Etat took the highly unusual step of divulging the contents of its files on Soetkin Collier, 25, a singer in Urban Trad, the band performing Belgium's entry. Branding her a "far-right militant with a strong belief in Flemish nationalism", the security service warned the state broadcaster and Eurovision...