'I find Eurovision too risque for family viewing, we should stop funding it' - Dudley MP
A campaign has been launched by a Black Country MP to stop funding the 'too risque' Eurovision.
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Marco Longhi says the show is not fit for family viewing.
The MP for Dudley North, said the "overt sexualisation" of the show meant it could no longer be shown to children.
He said the UK entry, sung by Olly Alexander, appeared to have been set in a public shower and featured four shirtless men dancing suggestively.
It scored well with the international juries, but scored zero points from the voting public.
Mr Longhi said he had watched the show with his family, and felt uncomfortable with the nature of some of the acts. He also criticised the Irish entry, which he said had a "satanic" theme which could be harmful to young viewers.
Now he is launching a campaign to cut off UK funding. The competition is organised by the European Broadcast Union and funding comes from national broadcasters including the BBC. The UK is one of the so-called ‘big five’ making the largest contributions to cost of staging the contest.
The MP said: “This year I was shocked to see the overt sexualisation of the performances, and I truly believe the contest can no longer be shown to our children,” he said.
“So I must ask the question, is Eurovision still a family-friendly show?
“The UK taxpayer pays a significant amount into Eurovision every year, and I don’t think we ever intended for this money to be spent on such suggestive performances.”
This year’s contest was also marred by a controversy which saw the Netherlands’ entrant Joost Klein disqualified following a backstage incident with a member of the production team, while Israeli singer Eden Golan was targeted by protesters.
