Singer Eden Golan has been told not to leave her hotel in Malmo, Sweden, except for rehearsals and performances, as throngs outside are protesting Israel's presence in the annual song contest--the song was originally entitled "October Rain," but the Eurovision bosses rejected it as too controversial, so it was rewritten and retitled "Hurricane" (video of song in link)--Golan's rehearsal yesterday was interrupted by boos from the audience, although no boos were evident during today's semi-final heat telecast (I'm assuming that Sweden's SVT is not sweetening the audience response like some American reality comps)--she made it into the Saturday finals after an all-viewer vote (the finals are at 3 p.m. ET in the U.S. on Peacock), as did the Irish rock band Bambie Thug, who had to change their costumes on Tuesday's semi-final heat when it was found that Celtic writing on the costumes said "CEASE FIRE" and "FREEDOM FOR PALESTINE":
https://www.thewrap.com/eurovision-protests-israel-eden-golan-hurricane/ The European Broadcasting Union of pubcasters who organizes Eurovision has always maintained that the contest is apolitical and that Israel's pubcasters are valid members of the organization, but politics has always butt into the proceedings over the years (like the Ukraine winning in 2022 after the Russian invasion) and with the panels of industry people voting on Saturday along with viewers, it will be interesting to see how Israel does and if the EBU will get hit with either coddling Zionism or supporting anti-Semitism. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/dcfd7865-998b-47ea-86a4-038337097418n%40googlegroups.com.
