Winning Destination Eurovision should have been a happy ending for him.
But in the weeks since he won, France’s 19-year-old Eurovision act Bilal Hassani has faced attack after attack.
The 2019 representative has told French publication Le Parisien that his social media accounts have been besieged by homophobic and racist messages, and he will be taking legal action:
“All this reaches me, it hurts me, it saddens me, but I am even more determined to answer all these haters, to file a libel suit.”
The legal action is supported by French LGBTQ+ groups including Stop Homophobie and Urgence Homophobie, who have identified more than 1500 hateful messages on Twitter. Messages have also focused on his Muslim background.
The organisations have pledged to pursue the perpetrators of the hate speech on social media. Over 200 complaints were made to French courts in January alone. With legal action underway, Bilal and his lawyer hope focus can return to the road to Eurovision.
But despite the hate, there is also love. Bilal recieved a manifesto of support – signed by both Yacine Djelbenouar, the president of Muslim LGBT organisation Shams France and Alain Beit, the president of Jewish LGBT orginisation Beit Haverim.
Communiqué : Bilal HassaniNous, présidents de Shams France – association pour les personnes LGBT+ du Maghreb et du…
Posted by Shams – France on Sunday, February 3, 2019
The communiqué praises Bilal and is scathing in criticism of trolls on social media:
“Bilal Hassani defends the right to freedom, the love of equality and his desire for brotherhood. He represents the dignity of France. These are the same values we defend within Shams France and the Beit Haverim and these are the values that bring us together.”
wiwibloggs salutes Bilal Hassani for his poise and courage, and for rising up to show the world that the only place he is going is forward to Eurovision in Israel in May.
Read more France Eurovision news here
Comments on this post are now closed.
It’s terrible! Bilal is my favorite of ESC 2019 (so far)! There is another problem. Some French media write that Bilal is anti-semite and screenshots of tweets 5 years ago from the official account of Bilal as evidence were published. Some media released an article titled “Banalisation de terrorisme” which talks about the video where Bilal supposedly mocks victims of terrorist attacks. Someone at all portrayed Bilal in the image of nazi. I believe that all this slanderous articles. This is fake news. I recommend read this article: http://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/musique/face-aux-attaques-bilal-hassani-reagit-laissez-moi-tranquille-laissez-moi-vivre-03-02-2019-8003244.php#xtor=AD-1481423553 P. S. Sorry for my terrible English! I’m from Saint Petersburg,… Read more »
Are all 1,500 messages sent from Russia?
SUE THESE COWARD ASSES HASSANI
if anything, it’s his song the one that should be receiving all the hate. i don’t like him as french representative this year, but as part of the lgbt i feel ashamed of all the hate he’s receiving, i’m glad he’s taking legal action.
The level of hate towards his person (and not his music or singing) is unprecedented. I don’t remember seeing anything similar towards someone who didn’t commit any crime, and that disgusts me! He has become the public punching ball of the intolerants and the narrow-minded on social medias, and I admire him for being so strong at such a young age and for always focusing on the positive things when he gives interviews… Most don’t know anything about him but just assume he uses his homosexuality for fame(really?), that he dresses the way he does for attebtion, that he is… Read more »
“Not liking him, his song, his voice, his act or the lyrics – that is NOT the same as homophobia!”
Who said it was? We’re talking here about people threatening to kill him and throwing racist insults to his face cause he has Moroccan origins, not about people criticising his music. Your prompt is flawed.
Wow he’s only 19!? must be very hard for him. The responsibility of representing France and having to face all this criticism and attacks. Hope he stays strong.
Great, and I hope every single one of them is fined and/or goes to jail. People think they can say whatever they want just because they hide behind a computer screen, well NO YOU CAN’T. There are laws that punish hate speech, threats and intimidations, so keep your threats and your insults to yourselves.
It’s not just on Bilal Hassani’s social media or in France, it’s everywhere on the internet. It’s a shame.
It is not like he has a song or voice but he is in pole position for the victim / sympathy votes this year. Definitely here the standard he sets is sky high. So countries that would also want to go this lane – don’t bother.
Dude, 99% of the ESC audience will discover him and his song during the live final in May. Not everyone reads ESC news months in advance, no one will know about this.
Dudess. 1. If you remove the story there is nothing left to discover. 2. Half of votes is jury votes and they will all know the story. Most of the votes is not audience but is the core bubble of ESC and that is his target.
Why would the jury know the story? They dont. Most of jury members are radio Dj:s, record label executives and artists. I doubt any of them spends their day reading ESC blogs and sites. Thats just Wiwibloggers.
Stop thinking everyone cares about ESC that much!
“Because I’m Julian, I read ESC news 4+ months before the contest so I assume that everyone else does + I assume all jury members are ESC nerds + I assume they’re not professional and will give sympathy points. I basically assume a lot of things”. … And to answer to “If you remove the story there’s nothing else to discover”… Are we talking about Big Brother or the Eurovision? Are you interested in songs, or in boring gossips about the artists? If there’s no story, well there’s still a song, an artist, a staging and a performance to discover,… Read more »
I probably underestimated the support for him. It is already impossible to have another opinion without being trashed. And this is with 4 month before the final. Lasciati ogni speranta voi ch’entrate!
Unfortunately all countries are the same. ALL. Scratch the surface of ‘civilization’ and you will find the same things. France is not worse than your country [whatever that is]. Conchita was internally selected, because Austria was afraid of a national selection that year.
Gosh this is very sad to hear ?
At the end of the day, Bilal will still represent France in Tel Aviv. Unless he or his team decides to withdraw by March, he will still try to make the best out of it. I mean, hate comments are normally addressed but the scale of this is just vile–it’s like France was in despair of having him. When chances of Bilal withdrawing and Seemone or Chimene replacing becomes true, I personally don’t want to see people keep on attacking Bilal (‘see, he realized he’s unworthy for Eurovision!’) or the other two (‘She’s just lucky because Bilal’s withdrawing’), since the… Read more »
He never « laughed at french people attacked by terror ». Stop spreading the fake news created by his haters. In the video he is impersonating a guy who got famous on the Internet in France for his reaction after the World Cup win last July.
As a person living in France, I can tell you that there is a lot more than 1500 hateful messages about him on social media. It is just crazy what is happening and you would not imagine. No matter when I open my Twitter app, there is always something about Bilal – something that they found about him and that may be bad, something clearly racist or homophobic, another death threat (there are MANY of them, an influencer has even been fired because he was threating Bilal in a video). Since he has won at DE he is the person… Read more »
Can you suggest him to close his social media accounts? But THIS guy/girl will never stop playing a modern Jesus…
Thank you for this explanation. I am shocked at what has happened in France.
The problem is: People are angry or frustated and they show it with writing “hate comments” in an inappropriate language. And this is shocking, because seriously: they are just stupid. No intelligent person will ever take this seriously. The haters sell themselves like “heyhey, we write and speak like we have never seen a schoolbuilding from the inside” 😀
What??? how this cruel can you be to legitimate hate towards to a 19 year old? why does he deserve hate? because of his song is not your taste or why???
Don’t blame me but I think that Bilal is just a “stupid” child that cannot assume his old foolishness and tweets (last events about him). Empty like his Youtube video content. Winner of Eurovision final only because he has an army of young fans, not by his talent. Too generic and narcissistic song (like him…) (I also read an article explaining that it broke the 70% french/max 30% english rule of Destination eurovision. Not checked but if it is true, cheater too…) Loving complaining about homophobic/racism but his tweets and video prove that he is not a so good guy… Read more »
I just say that this year, in the regulation of “Destination Eurovision”, the percentages of words in French and English have disappeared. So maybe he exploded the percentages of English, but he was not the only one (hello Florina …). But in any case even imagining that it was a totally English song that would have won, it wouldn’t break the rules. And a good remember for Sébastien Tellier , “Divine” is still the most English of French songs entry at Eurovision. As for Bilal himself, everyone is free to think what he wants. But there is a margin between… Read more »
So, you never said something stupid when you were 14 or 15?
There’s notthing at that age that you feel ashamed? Or that it was only a joke to you?
Are you really trying to make someone responsabile for what they said or did back in 2014, when they were minors?
That’s stupid and anyone that is trying to attack Bilal should be ashamed
You can say something stupid when you were 14 or 15. No problem But it is better to assume when these tweets are discovered (especially if you forgot to cleanup your twitter account before participating to a public contest: first error). Bilal’s argument is (on TV): “it wasn’t me, I shared my password with some people I didn’t know. Dieudonné ? I didn’t know him.” When you’re obviously lying instead of saying the truth “well I was stupid and for some tweets, in the context I still agree now or I changed my opinion about Israel”, yes you can be… Read more »
The man deserves respect at the end of the day. I have strict religious beliefs about being gay, and I think it’s a sin (but I don’t bully others because of it). If you choose to be gay, that’s your choice if you want to go against God.
So you chose to be straight, yeah? You felt both and then said to yourself: “OK, God wants me to be straight, so I’ll do that, even if being gay would be tempting for me” (because sin is always tempting, otherwise it wouldn’t be sin as taught by the bible)? Really!?!?!?! Let me laugh!
Maybe you should respect religious views, it’s what I’ve been brought up to believe.
It’s Adam and Even, NOT ADAM AND STEVE!
I was asking you a question. That has nothing to do with religious beliefs. If you think to be gay is a choice then you chose not to be, you had the option and the desire to be gay (which you didn’t because of your religion). So either you can answer the question or you have to admit that being gay is not a choice. It’s logic, not religion!
And by the way: David about Jonathan: “Your love for me was wonderful,
more wonderful than that of women.” (2 Sam. 1/v26)
Sorry, is this relevant to the song he`s singing? Or we are talking about his sexuality???
LOL
Christians are too privileged unfortunately, Eurovision fans wont give you any respect
Sorry
Another homophobic hanging around in gays-founded Wiwibloggs? Based on the Bible, you shouldn’t have been here with many non-religious fans here. Isn’t it also a sin?
I hope you don’t eat sea food…
Irrational hatred should be never an option. It must stop in every way, for everyone. I don’t like the song, so I critize it with arguments, not with personal attacks.
On the other side, my cynical self tells me this is some type of strategy, taking advantage of the haters, to gain more buzz and drama with Eurovision in mind. So he can grab some symphaty votes, as Conchita did. The big difference is Conchita really had good vocals and a good song.
If you were from France, you’d know how wrong you are.
Why should we be bothered if France is so homophobic? Call your local Police!!!
Nobody deserves so much hate and I’m surprised that even here in the comments some people keep sharing hate… I really don’t get it, he’s still human. Isn’t Eurovision about unity?
This makes me feel real sad…
And you’re right. I make you the soft version of a cult replica of a French film “the day when we put the idiots in orbit, they did not finish turning.” I think with all the haters and homophobes that hang around we would have enough to fill the hole in the ozone layer.
Noone should be attacked for being gay….and I say that as straight. So to some extent I support him. But it stops soon….! To me he is a drama queen who uses his homosexuality to gain attention and support. Which I find ridiculous. It’s a SONG contest. NOT a manifestation contest. And I find both the song and his voice extremely weak. This is the kind of acts who only add fuel to silly stereotypes people have of the contest (or of gays too, for that matter).
“To me he is a drama queen who uses his homosexuality to gain attention and support.”
Really?! You think that he really wants all this hate againts him?! Please tell me you’re kiding! He’s a young boy who wants to enjoy life! He’s not collecting only support but so much hate! Nobody should read things like that about himself and if you really think that he’s doing that on purpose you got a big problem….
Exactly! It
s sad to hear about all this hate towards him! BUT - I
m sure that he knew thas this is going to happend and I see it more as a provocation. Even in my country the story about him as a new Jesus is in local news….Love and peace.
You’re really not aware about how bad this is going on… He can’t even go outside alone because people threaten him to death.
The hate was already there before Destination Eurovision, it has been there since he started wearing wigs in his youtube videos. So this is not the first time he takes legal actions.
When he took the decision to compete in DE he probably knew it was going to get worse because of the exposure to a larger audience, and I think it actually makes him brave not provocative.
All contestants get hate, why do we only care when it is against someone who is not “privileged”?
Because nobody stands outside and hates: “haha, you are white/straight/etc”. The hating is always against the “non-priviledged”. What you mean or what should be the case is: You can criticize EVERY person without paying attention to sexual/religious/etc. aspects. You can say “I don’t like Bilal’s song”! But this is serious criticism in an appropriate (!) language and no hate 🙂
The hating is not always against the non-privileged, stop being full of s***. Anyone is capable of being hated. I have been hated for being white and blonde but I guess not since you say that can not be a thing.
Oh no please… As Eurofan, gay and french I’m so sad to have this song for Tel-Aviv, Bilal Hassani IS NOT a young singer, he’s a youtuber choosen in Destination Eurovision by his fans from youtube… Please, please, don’t make the buzz for him… Stop talking about him, here in France, every single day a newspaper made a story with that… WE ARE SO BORED OF BILAL HASSANI !?!!! It’s gona be really long until may! 🙁
If you’re really a fan of Eurovision then you should support him and wish him the best (even if you don’t like his song) and share love instead of complaining! He was selected ans there’s nothing you can do to change that…
Peace & Love
Ridiculous statement. A fan certainly is not obligated to support an act that he finds awful.
Eurovision is about music, love and diversity.
Peace & love
If it was about music, he wouldn’t have won the national final. 😉
LoveLovePeacePeace
I agree with you Bob! 100 %. And I’m straight. What ESC needs least of all are songs / acts as him!
I voted for him, and I don’t like his YouTube videos.
I didn’t even knew him before. I just thought he had the most potential for winning because he stands out from the rest.
So no, he didn’t win only because of his fans.
And he IS a singer
Oh. Common!!! Another political/human rights drama. Can it be just a Song Contest?!? Europe already showed support for Conchita! This looks looks like fake publicity to support a bad entry.
P.s. I`m gay.
Absolutely not.. I’m French and be sure the hate is real and Bilal is REALLY being attacked. Facebook, twitter, youtube, even politics.
I AGREE With the Rain!! Amen
There are human rights and lgbt association so taking legal actions due to the scale of the hate and you’re here thinking this is just a PR move. Inform yourself before you feel the need to comment.
I hope that you are sooo passioante abour 10s of gays been cilled in Checnya (Russian Federation) as well! But they don
t scompete in Eurovision. They
re dead!France has sheltered gays from Chechnya, some associations (including the ones who help Bilal) act about it too. Why do you have to compare them?
I know that! But here we talk about the person, who counts how many hate comments he has in his media accounts instead of delating media account!
What the…? Everybody should have the right to have a social media account if he wants to! Are you saying that it’s his fault if people harass him?! You’re crazy! can’t we just be free? (And btw he doesn’t count anything, the associations are doing that…)
Bilal, hold on and know you made it this far because tons of people support you! I had other favorites in DE and my issues with the winning song will be addressed in my April review. However, attacking someone based on looks, sexuality or race is horrible and unworthy of an ESC fan. I support Bilal in fighting those attacks.
If hes so bothered by them maybe dont put yourself out there so much. Its a cruel world and if you cant take the comments i suggest he withdraws.
“Maybe don’t put yourself out there so much”… Here it comes again, the miserable “opinion” of those who want LGBTQ+ people to do “their things” far away from the public eye. The same ones who believe that a woman was raped because perhaps she “put herself out there so much” and so deserved it. It’s “a cruel world”, but only for those who don’t live inside that ridiculous white-heterossexual-male privileged bubble, right? Get a grip!
So if a white-heterossexual-male receive mean comments and attacks would you react in the same way? I agree with Matthew, if you can not take hateful messages you should not go to Eurovision. People will hate you and some people will love you, live with it.
When the day comes for a white heterossexual male to receive hate comments for being white, heterossexual and male, we can talk. Unfortunately, that’s not the case nowadays. And that’s definitely not the case for Bilal. He’s not reacting against those who don’t like his music (I personally don’t); he’s reacting against those who are using his participation in Eurovision to let their homophobia and islamophobia speak louder. If you think there’s “reversed” stigma for white/heterosexual/male people, then you should look at yourself in the mirror and mind your f****** privilege.
I have been hated when I was younger for being white and blonde, can we talk now?
White&Blondes, that historically oppressed minority… I’m so sad… LOL
Well, how many how been attacked specifically for being white, straight and male? When being straight or White is the reason for hate?
No one. Because they arent a minority. When it happens we will react the same way. Until then we wont hear about your privileged poor us mentality.
Victimblaming much, are we? “Maybe you shouldn’t have been so gay and Muslim and those people wouldn’t have come after you”,
Classy! Wonder how you act if someone gets sexually abused? “Maybe she shouldn’t have put herself out there so much”
what a brave person!
uhh ppl who insult him personally are CLEAR homophobes…. one thing is saying the song is bad, another thing is coming for his looks. in 2019, in a first world country like france, there’s no place for hate and discrimination. stay unbothered bilal, you’re above those narrow-minded cavemen.
I agree, but I think you can say that u don’t like some of his fashion choice – I hate his haircut, and I prefer him with short hair.. I mean if he likes it it’s cool, but I don’t like it..
As a french , i can tell you there are much more than 1500 bad messages to Bilal
Though I wasn’t a fan of his song, I think it’s ridiculous to attack him personally, especially his sexuality, appearance or gender identity. Unfortunately there are a lot of trolls out there but it shouldn’t affect his daily life. I’m sorry he is having to deal with these awful people.
Hi everyone! I’m am French and I can tell you more about the ‘Bilal making fun of French terrorist attacks’ story : Yesterday, in a French TV Talkshow (Touche Pas à Mon Poste), Bilal was asked about this video, and explained that it was a remake of a video where a guy was celebrating French Football Team victory in World Cup, saying that France had suffered so much because of terrorism, but now it was time to party and to try to forget all of these sad things (This video went viral in France). Bilal and his friends were in… Read more »
Thank you for the clarification!
Another stupid excuse like the twitter sharing account.
He was a kid Nicolas, kids to stupid things…
We can’t even get presidents acountable for what they say in twitter, do you really believe he should be put to trial like that newspaper from Israel implied???
At the end of the day you can’t change him Boo
Clearly it did change him, as he is crying out about it. He should have that attitude now since it is in his song but I guess he is a hypocrite, who would have guessed..
If it did change him then he would resign and remove his wigs. He doesn’t.
Being affected emotionally doesn’t mean it changes you.
He was not crying before but now he is. I would say that is a change
This is not the first time Bilal takes legal action. He pressed charges last november when, on the anniversary of the 13th of November terrorist attacks, some people said the terrorist should have targeted his showcase instead of bataclan and other stuffs like that.
Usually he tries not to give attention to the haters but when it goes too far, he has every right to fight back. This is not “crying”, this is about not letting people think they can spread hate like that without consequences.
What I will never ever understand though: why write to someone you hate? Why waste your time like that? Why give someone so much attention who isn’t worth that attention thus actually making him more famous? It’s beyond insane.
If I were him, I wouldn’t even delete negative comments. Just go to singing lessons, this is what you have to do now, ignore social media. But if is true that he made fun of terrorist attacks (like @Tom said) this must be exposed at any cost. Find that video and record it, even with your phone in front of the desktop, if you can’t download it.
If this guy played all the France, something is very wrong.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/sputniknews.com/amp/europe/201902021072068716-singer-attacks-video-controversy/
i think this is it
Thank you! One doesn’t laugh like that about terrorist attacks. If you want to be silly, just sing some Spice Girls songs, or something like that, but don’t say those words “terrorist attacks”.
What a gorgeous national selection France had, and what jewels were there, and it ended up with this guy. I still hope in my wildest dreams that Andorra and Liechtenstein will pop up and say they want Silvan Areg and Seemone.
The video is taking out of context. People are trying to take him down and we know exactly why. When in november some people on twitter were saying terrorist should have targeted Bilal’s concert instead of Bataclan, or when they were saying he should try nightclubbing in Orlando, people didn’t seemed so inclined to condemn jokes about terrorism. But Bilal was, and that was the first time he pressed charges against haters. Now Bilal did a benign parody of a video where a guy was happy something positive happened in France after all the terrorist attacks, and he should apologise… Read more »
So I don’t have anything against Bilal, nor am I Frech, but I was curious about the comment from Tom as well so I looked up some keywords and found this article showing both the video and the pro and con arguments about the video: https://sputniknews.com/europe/201902021072068716-singer-attacks-video-controversy/ I’m not trying to provoke hate or anything, I just want to show that there are two sides to this story. I think it’s way out of line what’s happening to him, not only in the Eurovision context but outside it as well. No one should have to go through this, but I guess… Read more »
He actually never made fun of terrorist attack. The people reporting that are just looking for any means to destroy his reputation. The video was a meme/challenge thing where he was imitating another guy that made a video to celebrate France victory in the world cup. They are just taking it out of context.
Am I the only one who’s shocked after reading he’s 19? I couldn’t guess he was that young from his look 😮
he doesn’t look one day older than 19 to me…. u can tell he’s a teen
But of course you won’t mention the video he made some years ago of him and some of his friends making fun of Paris terrorist attacks. Say whatever you want but this guy is one of the most unpleasant Eurovision artists ever. He just keeps using the LGBT card and as a gay man I feel even more uncomfortable with that.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, however. And certainly not 1,500 wrongs. Bilal is entitled to seek justice, no matter who he is or what he has done in the past.
True. France and its real victims are also entitled to seek justice. You know, the one who actually lost their lives, which this vile creature apparently thinks is funny.
Bilal isn’t at fault for them losing their lives.
If this video truly happened, shame on him; he needs to atone for what he’s done.
However, beyond that, you’re reaching.
Making fun of terrorist attack was not fun, but considering he’s only 14 at that time, I would be as foolish as he is in those adolescent times.
But France won World Cup in 2018 so he was 19.
It was when France hosted the european cup, in 2015, he was 14/15 and the clip was cut from a much longer clip where you can see that he isn’t celebrating or joking about terrorist attacks at all, that story is what you call fake news.
Get your facts straight!
I don’t know what happened exactly, but at the age of 14 you aren’t a child and you know what’s right and wrong
The video is about him imitating someone after France won the World Cup (it was to show that something positive happened). Many of the French influencers did the same thing. The initial video went viral in France and then it was no problem, everyone loved it!
I also find him extremely UNsympathic!
I literally typed a whole paragraph supporting Bilal and the app refreshed (facepalm)
Anyway, take care of those who wish to hurt you, ignore the haters, focus on Eurovision and be yourself, that’s the best form of you and we love you the way you are!
Also, Roi is a good song and it’s almost like my name (Roy) xD
You’re a great performer (just work on the vocals which are not bad though)
Wishing you all the best ??
He does not deserve any hate at all. The messed up selection that we have is to blame. He was just a pawn. That said, good luck Bilal.
Although something like this isn’t new, 1500+ messages on Twitter alone was just too much, even it can push someone into suicide. Taking legal action was indeed a right call, hope the problem can be solved quickly.
Winner in the making… Haters will create a wave of sympathy for him.
He doesn’t deserve all this hate, but I sincirely hope that he won’t win
No, sympathy has never won the contest, Bilal will be no exception.
If he wins, it’ll be that way, because he worked hard enough to improve his singing, the song and selling his performance.
Sympathy did win the contest 2017.
Literally, how?
I don’t even think everyone was aware of Salvador’s heart problem, even then, plans were put in place whether Salvador would win or not. It’s not like winning was going to be the solution to all his problems.
Wel thankfully the juries don’t buy into that crap and they make decisions on talent, not a sob story.
Bravo. It’s about time such perpetrators are brought to justice. Courage.
These people are so messed up…
You can judge the way he sings, but bringing religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation into this is is wrong. I hope Bilal gets justice.
1500 people should be ashamed.
He can’t sing! That’s the issue! Not who he is or the way he looks!
That’s the issue with his Eurovision entry. If people don’t like his song – like me, for example – they should be clear it’s about the song. When it turns into something personal, though, it’s far beyond constructive criticism. Good song or not, good vocals or not, he doesn’t deserve the negativity he’s getting.
I don’t like the song either. Good luck for him though. He doesn’t deserve the abuse in my opinion.
Although saying that he can’t sing was a s t r e t c h since his acoustic version of ‘Roi’ disproves that (although not a strong voice), they way he look or who he is was indeed not an issue to be negative about. Yet, LGBT+ Muslims were still quite vulnerable to attacks since people would easily shove those f*cking religious rules as a weapon, so he faced worse situations than others.
Criticism of his singing technique is perfectly fine, as long as that opinion is made clear. The issue is not with such musical opinions, it is with actual hate crimes and, frankly, a disgusting racism.
Well you are a reasonable person with an opinion, however other people are sending him death threats everyday because of who he is.
Well, that’s just sad. It’s at the same level as racism. It should be ended immediately!