Will participate, will not participate?
The prospect of a song to represent Israel at Eurovision 2024 recedes this Wednesday, February 21 after the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) rejected the song initially proposed by Kan, Israeli public television.
The country, which selected its representative Eden Golan at the beginning of February via a tele-hookup, announced on February 12 that it wanted to participate with a song “reflecting the current situation of the country”, at war against Hamas since the attacks of October 7.
This announcement caused much criticism, because the competition prohibits the use of political messages in the texts of the participating songs.
“No intention of replacing the song”
In an article published on its website, Kan confirmed this Wednesday that the song “October Rain”
had
indeed been refused by the EBU committee responsible for verifying the conformity of the texts. .
Each of the participating songs must be validated, but this is often just a formality.
La Kan claims to be “in dialogue with the EBU” on this subject, but has “no intention of replacing the song”.
In the event of disagreement, “Israel will not be able to participate in the competition” organized in Malmö (Sweden) in May, recalls the Kan, which is seriously considering this possibility.
Also read Eurovision 2024: why the case of Israel is debated between the participating countries
The Israeli Minister of Culture quickly reacted to this news: “The EBU's intention to disqualify Israeli songs from Eurovision is scandalous.
It is a moving song that expresses the feelings of today's people and country and is not political.
I call on the EBU to continue to act professionally and neutrally and not to let politics influence art,” insisted Miki Zohar.
Israel is, however, not an exception: several countries have already had to modify their title or text in the past in order to comply with the rules laid down by the EBU which prohibit texts mentioning political brands or messages.
In the event of refusal, some preferred to withdraw from the high mass of European song.
The precedent of Belarus in 2021
Such a case already occurred in 2021 with Belarus which was ordered to change the text of “Ya nauchu tebya” by the group Galasy ZMesta, a song that the EBU judged in favor of the government of Aleksandr Lukashenko while large protests broke out after his re-election in the summer of 2020.
The group and Belarusian television proposed another song instead, once again rejected by the EBU due to lyrics deemed political.
Due to a lack of agreement reached within the deadline for the organization of the competition, the country did not participate in the 2021 edition, before being excluded in 2022 due to support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.