The Eurovision Song Contest experienced one of its longest and most intense nights this Saturday at the Malmö Arena in Sweden, where the grand final of the 68th edition was held. An evening marked by the controversial participation of Israel, which millions of People around the world have asked to discard due to the war conflict that is currently taking place in Gaza, with bombings occurring this same day in Raffah.
Eden Golan has been the figure around which everything has revolved in recent months. Since the multiple lyric changes of his song Hurricane, due to the various references to the Hamas attack on October 7; going through the singer’s statements, assuring that she would want to enlist again in the army once the contest is over. The tension of all these moments has been unleashed during the voting in the country involved.
The countries that have scored Eden Golan have been Malta with three, Norway, Cyprus and Germany with eight, 3 more from Georgia and Moldova, five from Estonia and Belgium, another three from France, two from Latvia and four from Lithuania, leaving the country with a total of 52 points on the way to televoting, in twelfth position. Finally, the public from all over the world has ended up contributing a total of 323 points, amid loud complaints that have turned into applause when Ukraine has taken away the lead.
Regarding the delegate of Israel, she has contributed one point to France, two to Georgia, three to Portugal, four to Croatia, five to Switzerland, six to Italy, eight to Ukraine, ten to Germany and twelve to Luxembourg. That has not prevented a loud outcry from those present in the pavilion, who have also expressed themselves against Eden Golan’s performance during his turn in position number six.
One of the critical moments of the evening came during the scoring of the Netherlands, which had been expelled from the final after its representative, Joost Klein, allegedly attacked an organization worker. The mention of Holland raised the spirit of the Malmö Arena, which immediately booed the festival manager Martin Österdahl, who ended up giving the delegation’s twelve points.
Hurricane’s performance has also been in the eye of the storm. The boos and whistles against Golan have been much more evident than in the semifinal he played on Thursday, being heard both at the beginning and at the end of the piece. The applause and cheers from the rest of the Eurofans present in Malmö have also been audible, trying to cover up other people’s criticism. One of the most notorious scenes occurred in the press room, where only the Israeli delegation applauded in the face of silence from the rest of the journalists.
