A Norwegian Eurovision judge has admitted anti-Israel bias in his voting for the song contest’s grand final.
In response to “a flood of messages and comments” regarding the Norwegian jury’s allocation of eight points to Israel, Daniel Johansen Elmrhari, also known as Daniel Owen posted a video on Instagram to explain that he did not play a part in awarding those points.
In the post, which was in Norwegian with English subtitles, the singer and dancer said that the points for Israel “came as much of a surprise to me as it did to you”. He explained that each jury member votes individually without the possibility of discussing how many points to allocate to each country, in order to avoid mutual influence and ensure fair judgement. “Therefore, it is important for me to clarify that I was not involved in the allocation of points to Israel,” he said.
