As the Eurovision Song Contest draws to a close as contestants battle it out for a place in the final this weekend, Israel's contestant Eden Golan perhaps has more on her mind than performance nerves.
Since it was announced that the country will be taking part in this year's singing competition, several campaigns were launched to block them taking part following the outbreak of war in the Middle East. But now with the semi-final just hours away, a question that seems to be on everyone's lips is why the country was allowed to take part in the European competition in the first place.
Eden has been at the centre of huge backlash ahead of tonight's semi-final after Israel had been attacked which prompted a tragic conflict in the Gaza Strip that saw more than 33,000 Palestinians killed since October last year. The Israel-born singer, who grew up in Russia, was forced to change her original track October Rain as many thought the lyrics referenced the militant group Hamas kidnapping and killing Israelis on October 7.
And so the song was changed to Hurricane in March, which was deemed more heartfelt and was then approved by the European Broadcasting Union. The controversial country had first competed in the competition back in 1973. It's eligibility came on the back of being part of the EBU, which is behind the running of the event.
Unlike Russia, who had their EBU membership suspended two years ago, Israel is still able to compete. Defending its decision making process, the Eurovision website issued a statement that read: "Russian public service broadcasters had their EBU membership suspended in 2022 due to consistent breaches of membership obligations and the violation of public service media values."
And in a widely watched interview with Trevor Phillips, Jean Philip De Tender, who is the Deputy Director General of the EBU said that if you “exclude Kan (Israeli public broadcaster) outside of these competition rules, that would have been a political decision, as such, which we cannot take."
He continued: “We do understand the concerns and the deeply held views that many people have around the war in the Middle East and I think nobody can remain untouched by the profound suffering of everybody involved in that war. The Eurovision Song Contest is a music event which is organised and co-produced by 37 public broadcasters, so it’s not a competition between nations or governments."
He then added: "We do understand that there was some concern around Israel participating, but when our governing bodies, because we’re a member-led organisation, reviewed the participation list of this year, they concluded that Kan … met all of the obligations compared to the competing rules.”
Eden is one of 16 acts who will sing in tonight's semi-final and whether she goes through to the final on Saturday will be down to a public vote from every other country except her own. The most popular acts will then go through to the final, which will be shown on BBC One and iPlayer.
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