Aden Golan at the final of "The Next Eurovision Star" in Keshet 12, performs a cover version of the song "I don't want to miss a thing" by Aerosmith, February 6, 2024/ Keshet 12
After the unveiling of "Hurricane", the song that will represent Israel at Eurovision 2024 in Malmö, Sweden, a press conference was held this evening (Sunday) with the singer Aden Golan who performs it.
The song was written by Avi Ohion, Keren Pels and Stav Begar, who also participated in the press conference.
In response to the question, voila!
Her mother's culture prepares for the fact that when she steps on the Eurovision stage she may encounter boos and hate, Golan said: "I'm not naive, I know what the reactions are towards us in the world. I know what the reality is, unfortunately it's not happy. What's important to me is to give the best performance and represent us with respect. I believe that music unites and speaks its own language."
When the song was leaked today via the Twitter account of pro-Palestinian activists, the caption "Israel is committing genocide" was pasted next to your photo.
Quite a few pictures of you with similar sayings may appear in Malmö.
What goes through your mind when you see something like this?
"That is not the truth. Israel does not commit genocide. I do not wish any country to go through what we are going through."
In response to a question about how she felt when there was a possibility that Israel might not participate in this year's competition, Golan said: "Of course there were weeks of hurricanes, of uncertainty, confusion and they didn't know what would happen. It was a bit difficult. At the end of the day, the whole country is in a difficult situation and we are going through a difficult time. Some people We need to release and soldiers who guard us. We need to take everything in proportion. We tried not to get confused by what was happening around us. We did everything to participate this year."
Referring to the question of whether an Israeli representative should not have been sent to Eurovision this year, Golan answered: "I think that this year is more important than any other year that we be there, that we stand there with pride, with respect and show our presence."
Keren Pels added: "This is not only a year of mourning, but also a struggle, and this, among other things, is intended so that our voice is heard. We do not want to treat this only as mourning. We have a pulsating and living country. Out of the desire to blossom again, like in Kibbutz Bari."
In response to the question of whether the creators felt it was a political song, Avi Ohion said: "We knew we weren't going to write a pop song now, we tried to do it in the best and most subtle way. There is a lot of subtext to the original text, but we felt the forbidden buttons. We didn't feel we touched politics. You can't write about something different these days."
More in Walla!
The intriguing process of recycling metal packaging
In cooperation with the Tamir Recycling Corporation
Eden Golan/Reuven Castro
In response to the question of whether she will say "Aam Yisrael Chai" at the end of the performance, Golan said: "You don't want surprises? We'll leave the surprise as a surprise. We'll leave it there."
Yoav Tzafir said at the press conference: "There was no doubt in my mind that we should be there. By the way, all the songs that came to the committee dealt with the situation. This was the feeling of the Israelis, that we should send a song that has meaning. So fine, we got a rejection but we didn't fold, we changed the song To a place of personal crisis. When you hear the words I'm still broken from this hurricane, Israelis will take it wherever they will. I think it will be very exciting on stage."
In response to the question of whether there is a security concern this year, he said: "We will do everything to have a successful trip."
Eden Golan and the team of song writers/Reuven Castro
Eden Golan/Reuven Castro
Stav Begar, Yoav Tzafir, Aden Golan, Keren Pels and Avi Ohion/Reuven Castro
Last week, the EBU, the European Broadcasting Union, informed the Israel Broadcasting Corporation that the song "Hurricane" is approved and that Israel will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden.
The decision was made by the Eurovision supervising committee, after discussing the lyrics of the song and after listening to its performance.
The original name of the song is actually "October Rain" (the rain of October - Saturday) and it included words that alluded to the disaster and war that broke out on October 7. A little more than two weeks ago we published in Vala! Tarbut that a senior member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) clarified In a conversation with an Israeli source that if there is no change in the lyrics of the song "October Rain" - the song will be definitively disqualified. The European Broadcasting Union told the same Israeli source that the decision whether to change the lyrics is up to the corporation, and made it clear that if it decides not to change - Israel will not participate in Eurovision. European Broadcasting demanded that the song be disqualified on the grounds that the song contains political lyrics.
At first, the corporation stubbornly refused to change the lyrics. Later, they relented and agreed, the name of the song was changed from "October Rain" to "Hurricane" and a significant part of the lyrics were changed. A source in the corporation explained the The turning of the horse in a conversation with Walla! at the beginning of the week in that the corporation realized that the disqualification of the EBU is final, and in light of their feeling that the committee overseeing the competition, which has representatives from countries such as Iceland and Sweden, "are doing everything so that Israel does not participate."
The official in the corporation further told Walla! Culture because the folding was done with the feeling that "if there are countries that do not want Israel to participate - Israel must make an effort to participate".
The source at the corporation also said that there was a fear "that this event would snowball into more cancellations of the State of Israel's participation in other events and it had to be put to an end to prevent peripheral damage in the world of sports and art."
An Israeli source familiar with the Eurovision rules and aware of the details, told Walla!
Tarbut at the beginning of last week referring to the words of the source in the corporation: "The corporation continues to convey a message and a line 'Devakai'. It climbed a very high tree. When it realized that the EBU is firm in its opinion - it looked for a reason to back down from its announcement that it does not intend to change the words. This is not a question of favor at all or against Israel. This is something very matter-of-fact, professional and dry. The EBU was 'in favor of Israel' because according to its criteria a corporation here met all the criteria for participation. The EBU is supposedly 'against Israel' only because a corporation here did not meet its criteria, according to It is forbidden to send a song with political messages. There is no where or where. All the criteria are the same for all countries in both cases. By the way, it is true that there are countries that are in favor of ousting us. As soon as you send a song with a political message - you give these countries a good reason to attack us in the institutions of the European Broadcasting Union."
More on the same topic:
Eurovision
Eurovision 2024
Eden Golan
Keren Ples