Israeli Eurovision song approved, country definitively participates

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Israel’s participation was discussed, among other things, because the lyrics of previous choices, the songs October Rain and Dance Forever, were said to have a political message. According to the rules of the music event, this is not allowed.

The EBU then entered into discussions with the Israeli broadcaster KAN to arrive at a suitable submission. KAN says it wants to present the new song Hurricane by singer Eden Golan on Sunday evening.

October Rain is said to contain a reference to October 7, the day Hamas invaded Israel and killed almost 1,200 people. Dance Forever is said to be about the Nova music festival, which was attacked by Hamas at the time. KAN then asked the writers of the songs to adjust the lyrics so that the songs would no longer contain any political overtones. According to the broadcaster, Hurricane, which was written to the tune of October Rain, is about a young woman emerging from a personal crisis.

Criticism of participation

Previously, Finnish and Icelandic artists, among others, called on their broadcasters to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest if Israel participates. All this in response to the country’s aggression in the Gaza Strip. A poll by the RTL News Panel also shows that many Dutch people believe that the country has gone too far in responding to Hamas’s violence.

An international petition to exclude the country was signed tens of thousands of times. “When Russia invaded Ukraine, the Eurovision Song Contest was very fast and strict, and banned Russia from participating,” the petition said. It is now definitively known that that will not happen.