The 65th Eurovision Song Contest, which would have taken place on 12-16 May at the Ahoy Rotterdam, has been cancelled by the European Broadcasting Union and the Reference Group on the basis of “the uncertainty created by the spread of COVID-19 throughout Europe and the restrictions put in place by the governments of the participating broadcasters and the Dutch authorities”. This decision was widely condemned by the millions of fans around the world because the Contest itself was invented on purpose to heal a divided continent from the atrocities of the Second World War through music, and went through turbulent times from the Cold War and the fall of Communism through the migrant crisis and the unprecedented wave of hatred caused by populism. Despite the broadcasters and the organizers’ moves to prepare for the upcoming contest in 2021, the reaction from those on social media was unanimous: anger, depressed, saddened, and disappointment because it puts a lot of time, effort, and money into waste for the organizers, the hosts, the broadcasters, the selected artists from the 41 participating countries, and the fans who waited an entire year for this opportunity to share their music to the world.

This petition aimed at rescheduling the 65th Eurovision Song Contest to August because the national final selection season for the 66th Eurovision Song Contest will begin on 1 September 2020, almost nine months before the Grand Final. Millions of fans around the world desperately needed some entertainment to overcome this deadly pandemic. I ask the European Broadcasting Union to reconsider the appalling decision of cancellation and simply postponing the Contest to August however they can to ensure that they would need some relief in these troubled times.