The Eurovision Song Contest might have been extremely divisive this year – but could all the drama have actually increased its audience? The 2024 Grand Final boasted a record-breaking 163 million viewers – three million more than the number that tuned in two years ago.
A tweet on SuperTV’s X page today stated: “The Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final was officially watched by 163 MILLION viewers on Saturday, May 11th. This is 1 million more than last year, and 2m more than 2022.”
After a voting frenzy, with additional scoring from the jury, Nemo of Switzerland was crowned overall winner of a show that fans have branded “the most controversial yet”. However, although colourful costumes, divisive devil horns and catchy tunes captured attention, Brits were consumed by a scandal surrounding UK contestant Olly Alexander, after he claimed the Union Jack flag was too “divisive” and “nationalistic”.
The Years and Years singer, who has also appeared in Channel 4 drama It’s A Sin, faced calls to have him removed from the competition for being unpatriotic. One fan of the show furiously tweeted: “We have a weirdo representing us in Eurovision who can’t stand Great Britain”.
Another called Olly an “idiot”, firing back: “We should be proud of our nation’s flag like every other country!! He’s meant to be representing us. He should be kicked out of the show!” However, he insisted that he “hoped to reclaim the Union Jack in a positive way”. Alexander added: “When I’m going to be out there waving my flag… at the parade, it’s for all the good things that have come from growing up in the UK and being British.”
He was estimated at the time to have had just a 1 percent chance of winning, but Olly was undeterred.
“I like those odds,” he shrugged, declaring that they were “better than zero”.
On the night, however, Olly suffered a humiliating defeat, crashing out with nil points – and some commented that he hadn’t helped himself to attract votes after blasting the British flag.
His failure to win the contest leaves the UK without a winning artist for the 28th year running.
Meanwhile, the event took a more serious turn when the venue in Malmo, Sweden, was swamped by thousands of pro-Palestinian protests, some carrying placards claiming that the event was a “Genocide Song Contest”.
Some activists were arrested or forcibly removed from the area, including climate change activist Greta Thunberg.
Then there was the disqualification of Dutch contestant Joost Klein at the last minute, after he displayed allegedly inappropriate behaviour towards a female member of the production crew.
Fans had feared Irish non-binary singer Bambi Thug would also be bowing out after they failed to appear at the pre-show rehearsal, saying they’d made a complaint about comments from the Israeli broadcaster.
Scandal aside, the audience for Eurovision was bigger than ever this year, fuelling hopes that, with the right contestant and song, Britain could finally triumph again in 2025.