Switzerland To Send Salvation Army To Eurovision

The Swiss entry for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest will be a Salvation Army band.

The Salvation Army band was chosen by the Swiss public in the annual competition, in Switzerland, to chose the country’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The band won over the public with their rock anthem You and Me.

However, there is now some speculation in the press that the Salvation Army group may not be able to participate in the competition because of the rules. Political songs are banned from the Eurovision Song Contest and because the Salvation Army is a Christian organisation it is thought the Swiss band may fall foul of those rules. As yet though there no official word from the organisers of Eurovision on the subject.

The 2013 contest will be held in Sweden after the country won the 2012 competition, held in the Azerbaijan capital Baku, with the song Euphoria sung by Loreen which scored 372 points. The competition will likely be held in May but reportedly a number of countries have already withdrawn from the competition – mostly for financial reasons.

BBC News reports that Poland, Portugal, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Slovakia have all withdrawn for such reasons while Turkey is said to be withdrawing as well over the voting system. Press reports also claim that Greece and Cyrus may also withdraw from the 2013 competition.