Organising team quits en masse

The Eurovision Song Contest has hit a major road bump, after 21 top level staff organising the event in Ukraine resigned.

The Ukrainian Eurovision team say they were stripped of major responsibilities in December, when a new boss was appointed to the organising committee, the BBC reports.

According to their resignation letter, they were “completely blocked” from making decisions about the show.

The EBU, which founded Eurovision, told Ukraine’s public broadcaster to “stick to the timeline” despite the upheaval.

It insisted the event would go ahead as planned in Kiev on 13 May. All the staff were appointed by the Ukraine Public Broadcaster (UA:PBC), which is organising the contest after Ukrainian singer Jamala won last year’s event with the song 1944.

In an open letter published by Strana, the team said: “Hereby we, the Eurovision team, for whom this contest has become not only part of our work but also part of our life, officially inform that we are resigning and stopping work on preparations for the organisation of the contest.”

The EBU said it could not com- ment on the staffing matters raised in the letter, but thanked the team for their hard work.

In a statement, it added: “We have reiterated to UA:PBC the importance of a speedy and efficient implementation of plans already agreed, despite staff changes and that we stick to the timeline and milestones that have been established and approved by the Reference Group to ensure a successful Contest in May.”