“Going against Israel’s participation is dignity”

The filmmaker Marcos Cabotá revives in his documentary ‘Forbidden to win Eurovision’ for the Spanish group D’Nash to participate in the musical eventin which they came in 20th out of 24, and defends that Spain’s withdrawal from the 2026 contest is “a matter of dignity” for disagreeing with Israel’s participation.

“The political issue of Spain not participating in Eurovision because it disagrees with Israel’s participation is understood. “It is a matter of dignity and it is not wrong to take a step aside.”Cabotá noted in an interview with Europa Press.

The filmmaker assures that the Eurovision Song Contest “is politics for the networks and an artistic event for artists” and considers that this consideration is where the interests of some and others “collide.” Cabotá affirms that D’Nash’s story in Eurovision interested him because it reminded him of the story of “David against Goliath“.

“It was not interesting for D’Nash to win because doing so entails work that, at that time, RTVE did not want to do. I can’t talk about other events, but in 2007 the group was stopped from evolving.“, he indicated.

Cabotá points out that D’Nash’s experience was a “formula” that was repeated in the first decade of the 2000s, although he adds that Melody, last Spanish representative, “has been able to live a similar experience”. The documentary has the voice of the four members of D’Nash (Esteban Piñero, Miguel Hennet, Antonio Martos and Javier Álvarez) and part of his team, in addition to Javier Castillo (Poty) who has agreed to collaborate, despite RTVE “not wanting to take the step.”

“Poty somehow admits that he had orders that D’Nash should not win the festival and was told that it would be better to come second than first.. It was not acted as it should have been acted,” emphasizes Cabotá, who recorded the entire process of the group until reaching Helsinki (Finland) in 2007. “Everything that is exposed in the documentary is demonstrated with the images recorded from that moment,” defends the director.

Marcos Cabotá has insisted that everything that D’Nash proposed was a “constant no” on the part of the public channel and remembers that the stage proposal was non-existent. “There was nothing prepared, only what they had put together in a rehearsal room in Madrid“he adds. The Eurovision polls gave D’Nash options by placing them among the three best countries, as the filmmaker remembers.

“I wanted to say that D’Nash did everything possible for Eurovision 2007 and I want the public to know it.”“he concludes.