Scandal at Eurovision! Luna’s performance interrupted by Serbian broadcaster

Luna’s performance interrupted

Luna, one of the 15 artists vying to enter the final, failed to garner enough votes to qualify for the ´10´. However, it was not the artist’s failure that attracted the most attention, but the fact that Serbian viewers were unable to see her performance in its entirety. During the Eurovision broadcast, RTS TV abruptly interrupted the broadcast to show the arrival of Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, at the airport.

Luna: broken bodies scattered through my history, lonely hou- Serbia: Fei shang gao shing chi shishyang chonghu guaja jushi Xijingpin pic.twitter.com/59kEPs9aEi

– Monke (@idksmileskurwa) May 8, 2024

However amusing the whole situation may seem, it is a serious breach of the contest rules. It is the duty of the broadcaster to broadcast a show in which voting from a country is ongoing. (…) However, if televoting was in fact used without broadcasting one of the performances in its entirety, in this case the Polish one, the situation should face a heavy financial penalty from the European Broadcasting Union,” reads a post on Instagram by Mission Eurovision.

Audience reactions and possible consequences

Audience reaction to the incident was immediate and unequivocal. Many viewers are calling for Serbia to be removed from the competition and for Poland to be allowed to enter the final. Comments such as:

They should now disqualify them and squeeze us into the final, They should now be disqualified and we should enter in their place They should disqualify them.(…) Breaking the rules is breaking

the rules testify to the huge dissatisfaction and the expectation of a fair outcome. The European Broadcasting Union is to investigate the case and determine whether the rules of the competition have been broken. If so, RTS can expect a hefty financial penalty, as well as further consequences related to the violation of the rules of fair competition. In the context of Eurovision, where each performance is relevant to the vote, the interruption of the broadcast of one of the performances is a serious violation that not only affects the results of the contest, but also the viewers’ trust in its transparency and fairness.