The European Broadcasting Union EBU stopped Israel from performing the song “October rain” in Malmö in May, citing that the message was too political. The title and several lines of lyrics in the song refer to the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7 last year.
The Israeli public service company KAN approached the EBU and rewrote the lyrics and changed the name of the song to “Hurricane”. Now it has been approved and thus the country can participate in the competition in Sweden. The new song will premiere in Israel on Sunday.
Several voices have been raised in, among other things, the Nordic countries that Israel should be stopped from the Eurovision Song Contest because of the warfare in Gaza.
As recently as Thursday, two Belgian ministers called for Israel to be excluded from the competition. But so far the EBU has chosen not to stop Israel’s participation.
Israeli artist Eden Golan will sing in the second semi-final, which will be decided on May 9. Two days later, the final will be decided.