Ukraine pulled out and Germany followed suit. And now the OGAE Song Contest 2022 is officially cancelled.

Simon Bennett, President of OGAE International, issued this statement, which was sent out to the various branches of the official Eurovision fan club.

“It is with regret that the Bureau has decided to cancel this year’s OGAE Song Contest.”

“The current circumstances mean that it has proved impossible to hold this year’s contest within our traditional spirit of friendly competition.”

“We would like to thank OGAE Australia for all their hard work preparing this year’s contest and to invite them to host the 2023 contest.”

The OGAE Song Contest is an annual event organised by OGAE — the Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l’Eurovision, or General Organisation of Eurovision Fans — in which the members of OGAE compete with an original song released in their countries. The song has to have been released in the previous year and be mostly sung in one of the country’s national languages. 

Australia won the last edition of the contest with “Fly Away” from Tones and I, giving them the right to host this year’s event.

This year, 30 clubs decided to participate — including those from Russia and Ukraine. The Ukrainian club subsequently issued a statement, writing that Russia’s participation goes against the values of Eurovision. You’ll recall that the EBU excluded Russia from Eurovision 2022, citing its invasion of Ukraine.

OGAE International subsequently held a vote and a “two-thirds majority” of the international fan clubs decided to allow the Russian club to remain in the competition. Many fans point out that it is the Russian government — not its Eurovision fans — who are waging war. 

However, as OGAE Ukraine has pointed out repeatedly, one of the Russian artists behind their entry “DNK” has performed at pro-war rallies. OGAE Ukraine has also shared screengrabs which show that the Russian fan club had endorsed Russia’s war. 
 
In the wake of Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, the international governing bodies of several sports, including basketball, hockey, figure skating and football, have banned Russian teams from competition. 
39 Comments
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CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
1 year ago

I’m late for the party, but no surprise. The blame must be put squarely on one man for this, only one.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
1 year ago

Thanks for this news; I had no idea that this is an ongoing issue with the official fan club. I hope they are able to resolve their issues going forward.

Fernando from Portugal
Fernando from Portugal
1 year ago

So sad Russia wins…
You penalized everybody because of Russia
A very bad decision!!!

Tylos
Tylos
1 year ago

Gee OGAEs, sorry to hear your refusal to offer even a token amount of support to Ukraine impacted on the spirit of your irrelevant, cringe competition.
I’m happy to say I cancelled my OGAE membership over this.

Sometimes
Sometimes
1 year ago

Not feeling sorry for them, since they couldn’t bring themselves to kick Russia out

Mark
Mark
1 year ago

Typical the contest would be cancelled the first chance Australia had the right to host something. I call this Anti-Australian.

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
1 year ago

Honestly, not really bothered.
The second-chance contest, although the voting is boringly predictable, is at least somewhat related to Eurovision and gets some of my interest. The Ogae Song Contest however? Never seen the point of it.

James
James
1 year ago
Reply to  Briekimchi

I can imagine many of the artists whose names are being forwarded by the clubs for this contest are confused seeing tweets and articles from ESC fan sites mentioning them, most likely unaware there’s this thing going on.

Jesper Hjellnes
Jesper Hjellnes
1 year ago
Reply to  James

This is something I’ve been thinking about, especially watching other fan contests online. Imagine being an artist and suddenly see someone talk about you being in a “contest” you’ve never heard of.

laampa
laampa
1 year ago
Reply to  Briekimchi

This year’s contest bothers me because Northkid, the group I cheered for at Melodi Grand Prix, is taking part in it!!

Fast Food Music Lover
Fast Food Music Lover
1 year ago

That’s a shame. But then again, the contests held by OGAE like the second-chance contest can easily be cobbled up by someone elseif they want to. It’s no biggie.

Dawid
Dawid
1 year ago

Not trying to be mean, but that’s the most interesting OGAE related information I’ve ever seen on this website

potaxio
potaxio
1 year ago

well, who’s hungry?

Iain
Iain
1 year ago

I completely support OGAE decision. It is so disappointing to see that people will rather forget what Eurovision and Ogae is about and ban Russia. Politics should never be a part of it. Ukraine should be banned for bringing political card everywhere. She is going to do it for years now. It’s dangerous and poisonous. It destroys spirit and reasons of having the contests. It will impact the contest with any other future conflicts within Europe.

Mark
Mark
1 year ago
Reply to  Iain

You know Ukraine will win the next ten ESC

laampa
laampa
1 year ago
Reply to  Iain

Why cancelling the entire contest because of it?! People can refuse voting for Russia if they do not want them to win and instead vote for the song they want to win, and that’s it!! How frickin’ hard is it?!

Alfie28
Alfie28
1 year ago

Russia’s participation in ANYTHING is wrong. It is the same as WW2 when Nazis invaded.

Iain
Iain
1 year ago
Reply to  Alfie28

Shame on you. NATO officer said they were planning war with Russia for years. Ukraine is played by west as it was Afghanistan. Russia just protects her own people because Ukraine turned on them. Nazi didn’t invade Europe to protect Germans everywhere.

True
True
1 year ago
Reply to  Iain

You are so brainwashed it hurts me! Russia invaded Ukraine and its a fact!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mark
Mark
1 year ago
Reply to  Iain

NATO never said they were going to have a war with Russia. That would be suicide and no one in their right mind who want a War where there is no winning for anyone.

Zisk
Zisk
1 year ago

Says a lot about the people in charge that they’ll follow Eurovision religiously but won’t follow them in removing Russia and would rather be seen to take their ball and go home instead.

Apple Senpai
Apple Senpai
1 year ago
Reply to  Zisk

That part. If you respect the contest, then respect what it stands for.

Mark
Mark
1 year ago
Reply to  Apple Senpai

The contest was only created to test new technologies in broadcasting. That’s it.

Jonas
Jonas
1 year ago

Very strange.

Karl
Karl
1 year ago

Who cares? The OGAE could cease existing tomorrow and nobody will lose a minute of sleep. In fact, it might even be better if they did. What a toxic fandom they seem to be. It can’t reflect good on Eurovision.

Nobody Important
Nobody Important
1 year ago

Oh no, anyway.

Henno
Henno
1 year ago

Nobody cares, aside from those in OGEA. This isn’t Eurovision news, this is OGAE news.

Lorena
Lorena
1 year ago
Reply to  Henno

It exists, because it is fun and we eurofans like it. The logical thing would have been preventing Russia to take part, just like at ESC.

Mark
Mark
1 year ago
Reply to  Lorena

It’s not a real thing. Who cares.

Henry Dupont
Henry Dupont
1 year ago

Soy una pringada también canta!

Lorena
Lorena
1 year ago
Reply to  Henry Dupont

hahaha

Sir Stevia
Sir Stevia
1 year ago

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Polegend Godnova
1 year ago

if i were an ogay member, which i’m not, i would ask for a refund. what a joke lmao. was it that hard to ban the russian branch from participating after all the evidence of their entry being unsuitable and go on without them?

Nathan
Nathan
1 year ago

ogay?

Babes
Babes
1 year ago

So they’d rather cancel the whole thing than just expell Russia like EBU did?!

Sir Stevia
Sir Stevia
1 year ago
Reply to  Babes

So stupid dude lol

Mark
Mark
1 year ago
Reply to  Babes

It took EBU 14 Years to expel Russia after they invaded Georgia.

Vivian
Vivian
1 year ago

Thus, the world moves forward without batting an eyelid

Ugnius
Ugnius
1 year ago

Why do they need to cancel whole contest ? Wasn’t it possible just to discard Russia ?