Over the weekend, Eurovision got a feel-good ending.

Bulgaria won the contest for the first time with its infectious song Bangaranga. And Australia came close – with Delta Goodrem placing fourth.

But the controversy over Israel didn’t go away.

Israeli singer Noam Bettan finished second, after getting a huge huge public vote – despite protests outside the contest, boycotts from five countries and warnings at Israeli broadcaster KAN’s campaign urging people to vote 10 times.

Eurovision insists it’s a non-political contest … but in the past three years, Israel’s place in it has exposed how political that stage can be – and how useful it can be for a government trying to shape how the world sees it.

Today, author of Eurovision!: A History of Modern Europe Through the World’s Greatest Song Contest, Chris West, discusses the boycott, the vote and how Israel turned the world’s biggest song contest into a soft-power campaign.

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Guest: Author of Eurovision!: A History of Modern Europe Through the World’s Greatest Song Contest, Chris West.