The Israeli public broadcaster Kan, in charge of selecting Israel's candidate for Eurovision, will modify the lyrics of the song to prevent the country from being disqualified due to the “too political” nature of its proposal for the 2024 contest, which talks about the attacks of Hamas of October 7.
(Also: United States military planes begin to launch humanitarian aid for Gaza).
“The measure was taken after the committee that oversees the Eurovision Song Contest decided to disqualify the topic presented by Israel due to its 'political nature,'” Kan reported.
The Israeli program 'HaKokhav HaBa' ('The Next Star') on the public channel Kan selected the singer Eden Golan two weeks ago to represent Israel in the Eurovision 2024 contest with the song 'October Rain', which has to do with the brutal Hamas attack last 7 October on Israeli soil that left some 1,200 dead and 250 kidnapped.
More than 30,200 people have died since the start of the Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip,
Kan expressed his disagreement with the change of lyrics, to tone down the political tone, but decided to follow the advice of Israeli President Isaac Hezog, who last week interceded between Israel's public broadcaster and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organize the festival, to avoid dispute.
“I think it is important that Israel appears in Eurovision, and this is also a statement because there are enemies that try to expel us from every stage,” Herzog said last week.
According to Kan, the EBU also did not like the song that came second on Kan's shortlist, titled “Dance Forever,” about the October 7 massacre at the Nova electronic music festival, where Hamas killed more than 360 people.
The Israeli corporation must modify the lyrics of both songs and it will be the Eurovision Supervision Committee who will choose the final version of one of the two songs.
Next Sunday, Kan will broadcast a special program in which it will finally be revealed which song and with what letter Israel will be represented at Eurovision.
The controversy over the lyrics of the Israeli song occurs amid multiple calls from political representatives and European artistic media to the EBU to veto Israel's participation in the war in the Gaza Strip.
The entity has responded that Eurovision is an “apolitical” event“, but this argument has also been criticized when remembering the rapid expulsion of Russia after its military aggression against Ukraine in 2022.
EFE
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