From the Liveblog of
Sunday, March 3, 2024
Israel teases its new, reworked song for Eurovision: ‘Hurricane’
Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel
Israel’s Kan public broadcaster says the song it will resubmit to Eurovision organizers for approval in the contest is called “Hurricane,” and is based on the same melody as the disqualified “October Rain.”
Kan releases a photo of this year’s Israeli entrant, Eden Golan, recording a version of the new song earlier today. The reworked song, Kan says, tells the story of a “young woman who is surviving a personal crisis.”
Israel submitted both “October Rain” and a second song, “Dance Forever” to the European Broadcasting Union and they were both “informally disqualifed” over purported political messages, says Kan.
The public broadcaster says the new song will be revealed live on TV next Sunday, March 10 — although it notes that the new submission has yet to receive formal approval from the EBU. If the EBU disqualifies “Hurricane,” Kan says, Israel will be able to appeal the decision.
“This is a different and distinct year, and we are dealing with things we did not deal with in past years,” says Golan in a statement. “It is more important to me than ever to represent my country with pride and if that happens, I will work as hard as possible to know that I did everything I could do.”
Earlier today, Kan announced that it was reversing its earlier decision to refuse to edit or change the lyrics to the songs it had already submitted, and would instead rework the song in order to take part in the competition.
