Switzerland and the Netherlands, two of the favorites to win the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, managed to qualify for Saturday’s grand final, as did Israel, which also achieved it in a context of protests against its participation in the musical contest for its military offensive in Gaza and despite the boos of its representative. This Thursday night during the second semi-final at the Malmö Arena, the pavilion that hosts the Eurovision gala in the Swedish host city, the Israeli Eden Golan was scolded on stage but also applauded, as had already happened the day before at the rehearsal. general.
Two countries from the quintet of bettors’ favorites to win the crystal microphone passed the screening: the candidatures of the Swiss Nemo with his song The code, and the Dutch Joost Klein, with Europapa. The representative of Switzerland gave a spectacular performance standing on a rotating platform and mixing drum and bass, opera, rap and rock to relate his process of self-understanding as a non-binary person. The representative of the Netherlands sang a song inspired by the transnational values ??of the European Union (EU) but actually dedicated to his deceased father, who instilled in him not to set borders.
The presenters, Petra Mede and Malin Åkerman, read – in random order as usual – the ten chosen by the audience, which are: Latvia, Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Israel, Greece, Estonia, Switzerland, Georgia and Armenia.
If some passed – like the delicious and folkloric proposal from Armenia – others fell. Among the fallen is San Marino, which hurts because its representatives, the Madrid rock band Megara, made up a striking Spanish double with Nebulossa. Coincidences of the gala production: the duo representing Spain performed – although as a mere exhibition, without voting – just before the representatives of the Most Serene Republic.
The duo formed by Mery Bas and Mark Dasousa, supported by the drummer Carmen Díaz and the two dancers, Iosu Martínez and César Louzán, drew applause from the audience, in a staging that included a red circular sofa with a yellow band. Mery Bas showed a substantial improvement in her vocal performance of the song Zorra, as controversial as it was catchy, which was chanted by an international audience that already knew it.
Israel was at the top of the favorites according to the bookmakers, and confirmed it by earning a place in the final. Its representative, Eden Golan, performed the song accompanied by five dancers despite the boos, some of which were drowned out by the television production of the Swedish public channel SVT, co-organizer of the festival with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
In a video statement on Thursday before the semifinal, Israeli Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu praised Golan before the gala. “Not only are you facing Eurovision in a proud and very impressive way, but you are also successfully fighting against an ugly wave of anti-Semitism, and representing the State of Israel with enormous honor,” Netanyahu said.
With this gala, Eurovision completed its list of finalists for this 68th edition of the festival. These ten countries, along with the ten classified from the first semi-final (Serbia, Portugal, Slovenia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Finland, Cyprus, Croatia, Ireland and Luxembourg), join the so-called Big Five (Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom), which due to their greater financial contribution to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) go directly to the final, and to the host country, in this case Sweden. And these are the 26 countries that will compete in the grand final on Saturday.
