According to the Israeli public service company KAN, the song “October rain” is about the grief after the terrorist group Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7. It is believed that the lyrics do not concretely include the attack, but only refer to it, and that the song does not contain any specific political messages.
The lyrics are now awaiting approval from the EBU.
Israel is represented by the 20-year-old artist Eden Golan. Both in Sweden and abroad, voices have been raised to remove Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest due to the war in Gaza and the many civilian casualties. However, the claims have been dismissed by the EBU, which says it wants to preserve the competition’s status as “an apolitical event that unites audiences worldwide through music”.