Calls for Alexandra Căpitănescu’s Choke Me to be banned, as campaigners say lyrics are ‘dangerous’ and ‘reckless’
Romania’s Eurovision entry Choke Me has been labelled “dangerous” and “reckless” for appearing to glamorise sexual strangulation, an unsafe practice that can lead to brain injury and death.
Campaigners against sexual violence said the entry, in which the words “choke me” are repeated 30 times during the three-minute song, was “playing fast and loose with young women’s lives”.
The song, by a former winner of the Romanian version of The Voice, Alexandra Căpitănescu, also contains the lyrics “It’s hard to breathe in”, “I want you to choke me” and “make my lungs explode”.
Clare McGlynn, a professor of law at Durham University and the author of Exposed: The Rise of Extreme Porn and How We Fight Back, said the repeated sexualised “choke me” message “shows an alarming disregard for young women’s health and wellbeing”.
