Israel’s chosen its representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, which takes place in Malmö, Sweden. It’s Eden Golan, who’ll represent their country, which is taking part in the ESC for the 46th time.
The composition
The title of the song’s “Hurricane” and it was created by Avi Ohayon, Keren Peles and Stav Beger. It’s sung in English with some phrases in Hebrew.
You can watch an excerpt here:
The procedure
The Israeli ESC representative was chosen on 6th February 2024 at HaKokhav HaBa (The Next Star) becoming the 46th Israeli representative at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Songwriters could submit songs until 11th February, and the Israeli song selection committee chose the song “October Rain” for Eden Golan. But the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) rejected the song due to political content in its lyrics. The song was said to refer to “the condition of Israeli civilians” in the 7th October attack.
The Israeli broadcaster Kan stated that they had no intention of changing or replacing the song, and that Israel would withdraw from Eurovision 2024 if the song was not approved by the EBU.
The Israeli broadcaster revealed on 3rd March that they had submitted two songs to the EBU, and that both were rejected. These were: “October Rain” and the song that finished second in the internal song selection, “Dance Forever”.
The broadcaster later agreed to change the lyrics of the song after the Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Kan later submitted “Hurricane,” which has been finally approved by the EBU.
What do we know about Eden Golan?
Eden Golan (Hebrew: עדן גולן; Russian: Эден Голан; was born 5th October 2003) is a Russian-Israeli singer. She began her career by taking part in the Russian National Selection for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015, and afterwards in the Russian television competition The Voice Kids.
Eden Golan was born in Kfar Saba, Israel. When she was six years old, her parents moved with Eden to Moscow for permanent residence because of her father’s work. She spent there 12 years. Eden’s parents were born in the Soviet Union to families of the Jewish heritage. Her mother is also of the Ukrainian descent. According to Eden Golan, she had mixed feelings about her time spent in Russia, and that while she started her music career there, she was also uncomfortable because of frequent manifestations of antisemitism. Eden and her parents moved back to Israel in 2022 because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, however, Eden Golan claimed that her family would have left Russia even if the invasion hadn’t taken place.
Eurovision Song Contest 2024
The Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Malmö, Sweden on Tuesday, 7th May (the First Semi-final), Thursday, 9th May (the Second Semi-final) and Saturday, 11th May (the Grand Final) 2024.
What do you think of the Israeli entry? Leave a comment in the comments section below.
Source (including photo): YouTube; Wikipedia; eurovision.tv.
Hey, Im karen from Vancouver, Canada. Just wanted to say I love the song “hurrican” by Eden Golan! She is an incredible singer and I wnat her to win!
I think everyone should leave antisemitism and political opinions beside the contest!!!
Thanks for your feedback, Karen! Yes, this song is great! I also love it and it’s my number one this year! Yes, let’s focus on music that will unite us!
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