James O'Hagan

But so that was cancelled.

There will, however, be a conversation at the Winter General Assembly, which takes place in December around Israel's participation.

And they're hoping that these new measures will give members reassurance.

At the moment, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, Iceland and the Netherlands have also, they were considered boycotting next year's contest if Israel takes part.

And we'll see what happens on that foot.

And obviously the meeting from the EBU is going to be coming up pretty soon.

So we'll get an idea of...

what is going to happen for Vienna 2026 personally I feel like my relationship with Eurovision has been so undermined that I don't it's kind of like it's kind of like Harry Potter at this point like I don't know that I can go back

Yeah, it really does.

I mean, there is another angle which I've heard, which I've heard discussed when people are kind of talking about particularly

the pressure on people not to participate in Eurovision is around like why this same energy isn't directed towards maybe sports competitions.

And is it that art is seen as more disposable?

And I think that there's an element of, yeah, I think art is seen as more disposable.

Therefore, it feels like less of an issue if we're removing ourselves from like an art or music or sort of a performance-based space rather than a sports-based space.

But I also think that it's probably that artists tend to be more politically aligned over here.

So there's more of an energy on it.

Because I do think, you know, it is interesting.

You don't hear as much of this conversation when it comes to like, say, you know, our participation in say the World Cup or the Olympics.

And I, you know, I think that at the moment that boycotting Eurovision is the exact right thing to do.

And I think that it would, it sends a really strong message about kind of like what our values are as a country.