「经济学人」Singing past Gaza

Keeping the contest apolitical proves harder than ever

The rules of the Eurovision song contest are clear: no politics. That might not seem hard for a pop-music showcase, but when contestants represent their countries, politics tends to get involved. The victory in 2014 of Conchita Wurst, a drag queen from Austria, seemed to rebuke Russia’s homophobic government, which had invaded Ukraine. Two years later Ukraine won with a song by a Crimean Tatar about Stalin’s deportation of her ancestors.

This year’s contest, from May 7th-11th in Malmo, in Sweden, is the most politicised yet. Israel is taking part even as its war in Gaza rages. In February the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an alliance of national broadcasters that runs the contest, considered disqualifying the country because the lyrics of its entry, “October Rain”, seemed to refer to Hamas’s terrorist massacre of Israelis on October 7th. The deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza led Scandinavian musicians to petition the EBU to ban the country, as it had banned Russia in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Israel has taken part in Eurovision since 1973 and won four times. The contest is an important symbol of international acceptance in a country that feels beleaguered and isolated. So the Israeli contestant, Eden Golan, fiddled with her song’s lyrics to placate the EBU; it is now called “Hurricane”. The EBU cannot simply ban Israel, explains Dean Vuletic, a historian who studies Eurovision. The country is not under Western sanctions. Moreover Israel’s state broadcaster, an EBU member, is fully independent, whereas Russia’s was expelled as a propaganda outlet.

The notion that Ms Golan could win seems far-fetched, but bookmakers rank her entry in the top ten. She is widely expected to advance to the finals on May 11th. Yet Irving Wolther, another of the surprisingly numerous academic experts on Eurovision, rates France’s chances most highly. It is competing with “Mon Amour” (my love), a slow ballad sung in French. That stands out from the other entries, mostly fast-paced, danceable songs in English. Nobody else does moody love songs quite like the French. As for polarising politics, “Mon Amour” has none of it.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline "Singing past Gaza"(May 9th 2024)

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