Fans cry foul as Israeli entry hit by sting claims
THE Eurovision Song Contest is shaping up to be the most political in its history after Israel became one of the favourites to win this evening following allegations of a phone-vote sting.
The 68th staging of the musical extravaganza at Malmo in Sweden has been plagued by rows over Israel’s participation amid the country’s ongoing military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
In Thursday’s second semi-final, Israel’s Eden Golan scored a whopping 39% of the Italian phone vote, which was revealed when the results from the 16 countries taking part were “accidentally” shown to viewers on screen.
It led to cries of skulduggery from fans. Bookies have since dropped Israel’s odds of winning from 50-1 to 8-1.
The leaked results led to frantic speculation pro-Israeli groups had infiltrated the voting system around Europe to ensure Eden, 20, wins.
During her rehearsal earlier this week, there were boos from the audience and the singer has 24-hour protection ahead of her performance in today’s final.
Israel’s involvement in the annual contest divided politicians, celebrities and fans. Generally, non-European nations can take part if they are a member of the European Broadcasting Union, which organises it.
The UK’s act Olly Alexander was caught up in an antisemitism row after signing a letter calling Israel an “apartheid regime” and condemning “Zionist propaganda”. He has since refused to speak about it. The EBU is supposed to have systems in place to ensure any dodgy tele-voting is rooted out. And last week it said it would ban Palestinian flags and symbols at the show, reinforcing that it should be a non-political event. However, Ireland’s Bambie Thug had to remove pro-Palestine messages she had drawn on to herself ahead of her performance at the first semi-final. And Swedish singer Eric Saade, whose father is Palestinian, performed his 2011 Eurovision hit at the start of the same semi wearing a keffiyeh, a middle eastern headdress.
Yesterday, Netherlands’ act Joost Klein, whose song Europapa is a tribute to his late dad, was stopped from rehearsing by organisers over an “incident”. The EBU said: “He will not be rehearsing until further notice. We have no further comment at this time.”
It follows Joost’s testy interjection at Thursday’s press conference after he and Israel qualified. Eden was asked if her participation poses a “risk and danger for other participants”. After being told by organisers she did not have to answer, Joost shouted: “Why not?” He then sat through Eden’s answer with his arms crossed and eyes closed.
Some feel the EBU’s apolitical stance rings hollow. Eden will sing Hurricane, which was originally called October Rain and is widely understood to be about the Hamas attack of October 7.
And the song from Ukraine, who won in 2022 after the country was invaded by Russian troops, has a section where singer Jerry Heil is being showered by fireworks, representing missiles raining down.
● The Eurovision Grand Final is on BBC One tonight from 8pm.