Israel chooses a Eurovision act as boycotts swirl
The singing contest's glitzy lights and glittering dresses were supposed to be a respite after another depressing, hostage-filled news day on Israeli TV.
Yet a somber mood hung over the finale of “Rising Star,” the show that selects Israel's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, as it pitted four young pop singers against one another Tuesday night.
This year's winner, Eden Golan, 20, dedicated her performance of “I Don't Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith to the more than 100 Israeli hostages still held in the Gaza Strip. “We won't truly be OK until everyone returns home,” she said.
As the victor, Golan will travel to Malmo, Sweden, in May to represent her country in Eurovision, a high-camp spectacle watched by tens of millions and decided, in part, by a public vote. It is not an obvious proxy for war. But as the civilian death toll in Gaza has mounted, there have been growing calls for Israel to be banned from this year's event.
Several prominent, artist-led campaigns argue that recent decisions to exclude Russia and Belarus set a precedent, and that Israel should be banned for human-rights violations. Eurovision officials reject those comparisons, but when Golan performs in Malmo, it seems certain that many voters will be thinking about more than just her singing.
The campaign for Israel's exclusion took off in December, after Iceland's Association of Composers and Lyricists published a statement on Facebook saying that Israel's aggression in Gaza made the country incompatible with an event “characterized by joy and optimism.”
A petition in Iceland has garnered about 10,000 signatures — equivalent to almost 3% of the country's population — calling for Israel to be expelled. If Israel is allowed to take part, the petition said, Iceland should boycott the event.
In recent weeks, thousands of musicians in Norway, Denmark and Finland have signed similar letters.