Eurovision Sits At The Intersection Of Pop Culture And Politics – And This Year, It’s A Fiery Combination

Ukraine banned Russia’s entry from competing because the singer had once visited Crimea, the part of Ukraine that Russia “annexed” in 2014. That comes after Ukraine’s singer won the 2016 competition with a song that appeared to explicitly discuss some of Stalin’s misdeeds in Crimea during WWII. That’s a lot of meaning for a pop song contest to carry.