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Israel’s public broadcaster has reversed its previous stance and will request an amendment to the lyrics of a song being considered for this year’s Eurovision competition.
Eurovision banned the song last week for violating rules on political neutrality in song lyrics. Entry from Israel by artist Eden Golan, october raincontains references to the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Israeli broadcaster Kan, which will determine which song will enter Eurovision in the country, promised last week that it would not request any modifications to the lyrics. But Israel’s President Isaac Herzog today called for “necessary adjustments” to ensure Israel can enter the show.
Kan is also considering a song called Dance forever.
Political messages have led to songs being banned in the past, such as Georgia’s entry in 2009.
Israel has won the Eurovision Song Contest four times. This year’s event will take place in Sweden in May.
Kan issued a statement on Sunday saying he had asked the lyricists of both songs under consideration to “readapt the texts, while preserving their artistic freedom.”
President Herzog, Kan said, “emphasized that it is precisely at a time when those who hate us seek to repress and boycott the State of Israel,” and that the country “must raise its voice” in international forums.
Next Sunday the determination of which song Israel will present will be confirmed.
The original lyrics of october rain – written in English – were published on Kan’s website last month.
They include the lines “They were all good children, every one of them” and “Who told you children not to cry/ Hours and hours/ And flowers/ Life is not a game for cowards.”
The reference to flowers often denotes deaths in war, Israeli media noted.
Artists have called for Israel to be excluded from Eurovision this year over its treatment of Gaza. They include artists from Iceland, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden, and several pointed out that Russia has been disqualified since its large-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
Eurovision organizers say the situations in Ukraine and Gaza are different.