Ryan O’Shaughnessy welcomes decision to ban China from airing Eurovision Song Contest
China censored his performance because it depicted a gay romance
By Steve Brown
Ryan O’Shaughnessy has welcomed the decision to ban China from airing the Eurovision Song Contest.
The former Britain’s Got Talent star Ryan O’Shaughnessy was voted into Saturday night’s final after Europe backed his entry ‘Together’, which includes an onstage same-sex dance routine.
Taking its cue from the track’s official video, which sees a same-sex couple dancing through the streets of Dublin, O’Shaughnessy’s live performance was greeted with rapturous applause from inside the arena during Tuesday night’s first semi-final in Lisbon.
However, it was reported China censored the performance as it depicted a gay romance as well as blurring rainbow flags elsewhere in the show.
“Love is Love” @Ryan_Acoustic reacts to the news that the EBU have terminated China’s Mango TV from broadcasting #Eurovision. For censoring #Ireland‘s performance due to LGBT content. pic.twitter.com/gNlvJeFJti
— BBC Eurovision🇬🇧 (@bbceurovision) May 10, 2018
Now the European Broadcasting Union have banned China from airing the rest of the singing competition and O’Shaughnessy welcomed the decision.
While speaking to Rylan Clark-Neal, O’Shaughnessy said: “I would like to welcome the decision by the EBU to do that because from the very start we have just said love is love.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s between two guys and two girls or a guy and a girl.
“I think it’s a really important decision by the EBU, they haven’t taken it lightly, and I think it’s a move in the right direction – I’m happy about it.”
This marks the first time Ireland have made it to the finals since 2013.
Watch his performance below: