Romania’s entry for 2026’s already controversial Eurovision Song Contest is facing criticism for allegedly promoting the dangerous practice of sexual strangulation, according to The Guardian newspaper.
Choke Me, by Alexandra Căpitănescu, includes lyrics such as “I want you to choke me” and “make my lungs explode”, and has been described as “reckless” by campaigners against sexual violence.
Last year, The Guardian reported that more than half of sexually active people under the age of 35 in the UK have experienced strangulation, with more than two in five sexually active under 18s having either been strangled or strangled someone during sex. The report suggested that choking has “become part of a dangerous drift towards increased violence in mainstream pornography” and that there are consent issues around the practice in sexual encounters.
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Clare McGlynn, a professor of law at Durham University and the author of Exposed: The Rise of Extreme Porn and How We Fight Back, tells The Guardian that the lyrics of Căpitănescu’s song display “an alarming disregard for young women’s health and wellbeing”.
“The song – and its choice by Romania/Eurovision, and promotion by those organisations – represents a reckless normalisation of a dangerous practice,” she says. “It’s playing fast and loose with young women’s lives. The emerging medical evidence is that frequent sexual strangulation is giving young women brain damage.”
However, a caption on the Romanian TV broadcaster’s YouTube channel offers a different perspective on the message of the song, stating, “Choke Me speaks about the emotional pressure, doubts and turmoil that many young artists go through when trying to find their own voice and place in the world. Through an intense and deeply personal interpretation, Alexandra Căpitănescu transforms this experience into a powerful and authentic musical moment. The atmosphere of the song captures the tension between fragility and the strength to move forward, inviting the audience into a sincere emotional experience.”
The Guardian says that there have been calls for the song to be disqualified.
Meanwhile, Căpitănescu has been booked to perform at the London Eurovision Party 2026 at HERE at the Outernet on April 19.
Eurovision 2026 has already attracted controversy, and international boycotts, due to Israel’s participation in the contest. Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Slovenia, and Holland are neither participating in, nor broadcasting, this year’s event in protest against the still on-going violence against Palestinians in Gaza, where a ‘ceasefire’ is in effect.
A United Nations report last month stated: “According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza (MoH), 82 Palestinians were killed, and 162 others injured during the reporting period, bringing the total casualty toll reported by MoH since the ceasefire came into effect to 574 killed and 1,518 injured.”
Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ, declared that taking part in Eurovision 2026 would be “unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there” while Spain’s culture minister, Ernest Urtasun stated “You can’t whitewash Israel given the genocide in Gaza. Culture should be on the side of peace and justice.”