In May 2024, after the final of the main European vocal competition, a photo allegedly showing participants of the event began to circulate on social networks. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.
May 11 in Malmo, Sweden took place final of the Eurovision Song Contest. The next day, a photo spread on Telegram: five men are standing against the backdrop of a press wall with the Eurovision logo, while two of them are dressed in skirts, another one in shiny panties, a fluffy dress and short shorts. All the characters in the photo are wearing high-heeled shoes, there are a lot of tattoos on their bodies, and bright makeup on their faces. “I wonder, for what reasons are we no longer broadcasting Eurovision? Why don’t Russia send anyone there anymore? Have we run out of degenerates? — commented photo by blogger Dmitry “Goblin” Puchkov (197,000 views at the time of writing this analysis).
Russian "military correspondent» Yuri Kotenok published this photo along with screenshots from the Eurovision broadcast and linked these frames with the Russian invasion of Ukraine (115,000 views; author’s spelling and punctuation preserved): “The fighting on the territory of the former Ukraine is perceived by others as a kind of abstraction, divorced from their “real” life. These people are deeply mistaken, and therefore will inevitably suffer. War will affect everyone, sooner or later. The devil in our world is growing bolder every day because of our sins. <…> We are Russians, God is with us! And on the other side there is madness and degeneration. Their demons dance for the amusement of Satan, and we fight. We are also right for this reason. And there will be no compromises, no matter how much you give the possessed iPhones... These vile haris are shelling Belgorod. If it were their will, they would beat Moscow.”
The picture was also published by the channels “The goat screamed" (71,000 views) and "NeMalakhov" (58,000), users "Peekaboo" And "VKontakte"
Eurovision - even after suspension The Russian Federation from the competition in 2022 due to the outbreak of a full-scale war in Ukraine - traditionally causes sharply negative reaction from Russian officials and pro-government speakers. “Eurovision 2024 has surpassed any orgy, coven or ritual sacrilege. Funerals in Western Europe are taking place as usual,” wrote in her Telegram channel, official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova (734,000 views).
Attached to the post of the speaker of the Russian Foreign Ministry is a video with clippings from the speeches of some of the competition participants, accompanied by music to the scene of Satan's ball from the series "The Master and Margarita". Among the contestants who caused Zakharova’s indignation is a representative of Ireland who played out the rite of exorcism in her act Bambie Thug (sixth place), member of the duet who performed most of the performance without pants (or rather, shorts) Windows95man from Finland (19th place), Ukrainian rap artist alyona alyona (they, together with Jerry Heil, became third; in Zakharova’s video the performers are called representatives of the “Kyiv regime”), a Briton sang surrounded by half-naked backup dancers Ollie Alexander (18th place), dancers dressed in corsets and high-heeled boots in a Spanish group number Nebulossa (22nd place). The Eurovision winner also got it Nemo from Switzerland - they (the singer identifies himself as a non-binary person and asks to use this particular pronoun in relation to himself) came on stage in a skirt.
The photo that circulated in this context, however, contains several details that cast doubt on its authenticity. Thus, on the press release behind the backs of the people depicted, the letter V in the Eurovision logo is made in the form of a white heart, but in reality it is traditionally paint in the colors of the country hosting the competition. Accordingly, if the photo were taken in 2024, the Swedish flag in the shape of a heart would be in this place. The press itself also raises questions. In the lower right corner, two logos are visible, which use a set of incomprehensible symbols, rather than letters of the Latin alphabet.
Moreover, the structure of the hands of people who allegedly attended Eurovision in Malmo is unnatural. Thus, the right arm of the second person on the left is longer than it could be in reality. At the same time, he places two hands at once on the person’s shoulder in the center, one of which does not have a thumb. The hand lying on the waist of the second person on the right has fingers that seem to have grown together. These visual errors are: characteristic feature of images created using neural networks.
How found out fact checkers from the Georgian project “Myth Detector”, for the first time a picture with the caption “Eurovision 2025 winners” was published on the evening of May 11 by user @RadioGenoa on the social network X. The tweet, which was apparently satirical in nature, received more than 1.4 million views. In other posts, @RadioGenoa supports anti-immigrant, racist and Islamophobic narratives, and some of his tweets are directed against trans people.
Thus, the viral photo was generated using artificial intelligence, and not taken during Eurovision. The use of this image without an appropriate disclaimer in publications published the day after the end of the competition, and even more so in some posts with screenshots from the official broadcast of the event, misleads readers.
Cover photo: social networks
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