Romania’s Eurovision entry slammed by anti-extreme-porn professor over ‘choke me’ lyrics
Alexandra Căpitănescu’s ‘Choke Me’ has been criticised for ‘glamorising sexual strangulation’. (YouTube/Eurovision Song Contest)
Romania’s 2026 Eurovision song contest entry has been criticised by a professor of law at Durham University for “glamorising sexual strangulation”.
Eurovision 2026 – the 70th edition of the contest – will take place in Vienna, after Austrian singer JJ won last year with his operatic ballad, “Wasted Love”.
The contest will feature 35 countries, including Romania, which Alexandra Căpitănescu will represent, with a song titled “Choke Me”.
However, the intense three-minute rock song has been criticised for its glamorisation of sexual strangulation.
The song by Căpitănescu, the winner of The Voice of Romania 2023, repeats the words “choke me” 30 times, with further lyrics saying, “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, told The Guardian that the lyrics, especially repeating “choke me”, “show an alarming disregard for young women’s health and wellbeing”.
McGlynn added: “The song – and its choice by Romania/Eurovision, and promotion by those organisations – represents a reckless normalisation of a dangerous practice.
“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.”
Căpitănescu has defended her song, stating that “choke me” is a metaphor for feeling overwhelmed by strong emotions and being suffocated by self-doubt.
In the UK, pornography featuring strangulation or choking is to be made illegal under the Crime and Policing bill.
Online, fans of Eurovision have also called for the entry to be disqualified or for the lyrics to be modified.
It wouldn’t be the first time lyrics to a song have been changed at the contest. Last year, Miriana Conte, Malta’s 2025 Eurovision Song Contest entrant, was forced by the European Broadcasting Union to change the lyrics to her song “Kant”, meaning “sing” in Maltese, but sounding identical to an explicit British insult. The song was retitled “Serving”.
Five countries – Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain – will be boycotting this year’s contest over the decision to let Israel take part, while betting odds are currently suggesting that there is a clear favourite to win.
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