Eden Golan, Israel’s representative in the Eurovision Song Contest, has been in Malmö, the Swedish host city, for days, but has not been seen beyond rehearsals. The deadly Israeli military offensive in Gaza has called into question the country’s participation in a contest that declares itself apolitical, but which in this 68th edition is marked by the crisis in the Middle East. Golan, 20, will perform the love song Hurricane in the second semi-final (on Thursday the 9th), the third proposed lyric after the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) rejected two previous versions on the grounds that they had political content, something prohibited. in the contest.
The tension over Israeli involvement is clear. The war in Gaza has left some 34,500 Palestinians dead, mostly women and children. The platform of associations Stop Israel, for peace and a free Palestine has called for two demonstrations in Malmö: one Thursday morning and another on Saturday, the day of the final. It is assumed that Israel will qualify for the final, as betting places Eden Golan in 8th place among the 37 countries competing. Swedish police estimate that around 20,000 people could participate in both protests, while in another area of ??the city there will be a counter-march in favor of Israel.
The Israeli Government has advised Israeli Eurofans against traveling to Malmö – the festival is passionately followed in Israel, which has won it four times (1978, 1979, 1998 and 2018) – and the Shin Bet, the internal security services of Israel, told Eden Golan and the Israeli delegation to remain in their hotel rooms and leave only for rehearsals, performances and official appointments. Golan has received death threats on his Instagram account.
Before traveling to Malmö, the singer gave an interview in Tel Aviv to the AFP agency, in which she declined to talk about the war in Gaza and claimed to have received “a lot of support and no negative comments” about her song. Golan defended that “every person who listens to it can identify with the song at their own level; our people, our country relates to it on a very different and deeper emotional level, due to the tragedy we have experienced,” in reference to the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, in which 1,170 Israelis died, the majority civilians, and about 250 were kidnapped.
It now remains to be seen how the spectators at the Malmö Arena, the pavilion that will host the galas, will react to Eden Golan’s performance: whether there will be applause or boos, or both. Hundreds of musicians have demanded Israel’s exclusion from Eurovision, and at the end of March several contestants called for a lasting ceasefire, but calls for a boycott have not been successful and no country has withdrawn its representative.
Faced with the overexposure of the conflict in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine, which took over the festival two years ago with the start of the Russian invasion and the triumph of the Ukrainian band Kalush, is less visible this time. The representatives of Ukraine, Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil – stage names of rapper Aliona Savranenko and singer-songwriter Yana Shemayeva – will sing the song Teresa
Bettors place them in fourth place among the favorites to win the crystal microphone. The performers have already announced that, if they win, they will auction the trophy, as the Kalush did, to help their country. Both have started raising funds to rebuild a school in eastern Ukraine.
