Nine participants of the upcoming Eurovision contest will not boycott the annual competition, simply because of Israel's involvement.
It wasn’t easy to get Israel’s song choice approved this year, but “Hurricane” finally received the thumbs up from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which runs the annual contest.
Eden Golan will perform “Hurricane” at the competition in Malmo, Sweden, in May. The approved song has the same melody as “October Rain,” which was rejected.
Israel has already agreed to revise the lyrics of its potential submission to the song contest after EBU took issue with verses that appeared to reference Hamas' October 7 attack.
KAN will change the lyrics to Israel's 2024 Eurovision song submission, "October Rain," and its runner-up "Dance Forever" in order to allow the country to participate in the song contest.
The first-choice song, “October Rain,” was not approved by the EBU, reportedly because it contained a direct reference to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
"We talked about Public Diplomacy and I think it's important for Israel to appear in Eurovision, and this is also a statement because there are haters who try to expel us from every stage,” he added.
The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, Kan, clarified that Israel had no intention of changing the lyrics.
Actress Helen Mirren, who portrayed former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the 2023 film “Golda,” was among the 400+ signatories.
Eden Golan, whose family moved from Israel to Russia when she was six and moved back here two years ago, already has a professional career abroad.
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