Nearly two weeks ago, it was revealed that the Israeli entry for Eurovision 2024 “October Rain” could be rejected by the EBU for containing political messaging in it’s lyrics. Despite no confirmation from the EBU, it appears that this has happened, and their second entry “Dance Forever” has also been denied by the EBU.
When news broke that the first entry could be rejected, the broadcaster took a very firm stance that revising the entry would not be considered.
Specifically they stated: “We will not change the words or the song, event at the cost of Israel not participating in Eurovision this year.” This essentially signaled that the broadcaster would rather withdraw from the contest than change their song.
However, KAN has posted a new statement on X that indicates things have changed. In recent days the broadcaster has been working with the songwriters for both entries to revise the content of the lyrics to abide by the Eurovision rules. Their hope is that by making these changes one of the songs will be approved by by the EBU and Israel will be allowed to compete in the 2024 Contest this May.
The official statement from KAN reads:
“The Israel Broadcasting Corporation has been working in recent weeks to take the necessary steps to allow Israel to participate in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Despite the disagreement with the position of the Eurovision supervising committee, which asked to disqualify the two songs submitted by Israel for the competition – with the argument that they “carry a political character”, “Kan” adopted the advice of the country’s president, Yitzhak Herzog, who turned to the corporation’s council and offered to make the necessary adjustments, which would allow Israel to be represented on the Eurovision stage.
The President of the State emphasized that precisely at a time when our haters seek to suppress and boycott the State of Israel from every stage Israel must raise its voice and hold head high and raise its flag in every world forum, especially this year.
KAN contacted the creators of the two selected songs, “October Rain” which was chosen in first place and the song “Dance Forever” which came in second place, and asked to readjust the lyrics, whilst preserving full artistic freedom. Based on the new lyrics – KAN will choose the song that will be sent to the Eurovision supervising committee, so that they will approve Israel’s participation in the Contest.
On Sunday, March 10, at 9:30 p.m., KAN 11 will broadcast a special broadcast in which the song that will be sent to Eurovision will be revealed and will be performed by Eden Golan.”
The new version of the selected song will then be re-assessed by the EBU. If the song is still found to be in breach of the rules it will be rejected again, and it is unlikely that Israel will have enough time to re-edit and re-submit the entries before the March 11th deadline and will need to withdraw from the contest.
We will continue to monitor the situation as it unfolds.
