Mae Muller, who represented the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023, has explained why she signed an open letter to the event’s organisers over Israel’s involvement. Ahead of the 2026 event, more than 70 former contestants including Muller called on the EBU to ban the country’s national broadcaster KAN from competing, amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Muller took part in the show the year it was held in Liverpool on behalf of Ukraine, after Russia were excluded. On a new episode of Bimini’s podcast The Pieces, she said that “pretending that music and art is not political is silly”, and that it felt like there had since been “a double standard”.
The host had previously asked her: “You’ve signed an open letter, kind of condemning what’s going on and the Israel of it all, in Eurovision. How was that for you to do that?”
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“It was the easiest thing ever,” she said. “I was like, ‘why is this a conversation? Hello?'”
She continued: “Pretending that music and art is not political is silly; it’s inherently political. When I was doing Eurovision, we were hosting on behalf of Ukraine and it was beautiful. There were Ukraine flags everywhere and it felt like such a moment of unity.
“And then it was like, the next year, I was like… ‘wait’. It just felt like such a double standard, and I just didn’t think it was right.”
At the end of 2025, a rule change was implemented that aimed to discourage governments and third parties from disproportionately promoting entries; an accusation that had been leveled at KAN. A vote on Israel’s participation was then called off, leading to several other nations pulling out in protest.
Related: BBC announces stacked Eurovision 2026 presenting lineup
This year, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia will neither compete in nor broadcast the competition; while the Netherlands and Iceland have not entered it. Nemo, who won in 2024 for Switzerland with ‘The Code’, has handed back their trophy.
Muller was the last United Kingdom entrant to take their song into the Top 10 of this country’s singles chart, when ‘I Wrote A Song’ peaked at number 9. She released a new EP, My Island, in 2025; and recently dropped another new song, ‘Tell You That’.
Meanwhile, the BBC today confirmed their presenting line-up for Eurovision 2026, which follows later this month. The United Kingdom are represented by Look Mum No Computer.
The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 airs on Saturday 16 May, with the Semi-Finals airing on Tuesday 12 and Thursday 14 May. They will air live on BBC One and iPlayer, as well as via BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds.
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