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Israel's public broadcaster has requested changes to the lyrics of a song submitted for this year's Eurovision contest. Organisers barred it last week for breaking rules on political neutrality. Israeli broadcaster Kan had pledged not to alter the lyrics of October Rain - an apparent reference to the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October. But Israel's President Isaac Herzog called for "necessary adjustments" to ensure Israel can enter the show. Israel has won the Eurovision Song Contest four times before. This year's event will be held in Sweden - who won last year's content - in May. Kan is...

Russia has placed a Ukrainian singer who won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on its wanted list, state news agencies reported Monday. The reports said an Interior Ministry database listed singer Susana Jamaladinova as being sought for violating a criminal law. The independent news site Mediazona, which covers opposition and human rights issues, said Jamaladinova was charged under a law adopted last year that bans spreading so-called fake information about the Russian military and the ongoing fighting in Ukraine. Jamaladinova, who performs under the stage name Jamala, is of Crimean Tatar descent. Jamala, who performed at the Kennedy Center Honors...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reportedly been denied the opportunity to address audiences at the highly touted Eurovision Contest Finale this weekend. Organizers have rejected a request from Zelensky's office to make a video address to the audiences as it would breach the "non-political" nature of the event. The decision was taken by the European Broadcasting Union, a grouping of national public broadcasters that runs the Eurovision. Later, a spokesperson from the Ukrainian president's office claimed that Kyiv made no such request.

It would not be appropriate for the Ukrainian President to make an address on the Eurovision Song Contest final because the programme is apolitical, organisers have said. President Volodymyr Zelenskly wanted to address the hundreds of millions of people worldwide expected to watch the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, but has been blocked from doing so by the European Broadcast Union (EBU). The appearance may have been intended to be like Zelensky’s video appearance at the 2022 Grammy Awards and the 2023 Berlin Film Festival and U.S. Golden Globes ceremony, where he asked for support and asked...

When TVORCHI takes the stage in host city Liverpool, it will be a moment to savour for the country's LGBT troops. "I didn't know if I would make it," says Antonina Romanova, a soldier who has been fighting on Ukraine's front line. Antonina, who identifies as non-binary and who, with her partner of nine years Oleksandr, took the decision to leave their lives as theatre directors in Kyiv and fight the Russian army... Their work has ranged from digging trenches and ducking gunfire, to feeding 150 soldiers in the frontline military canteen - the toughest gig of all, they only...

In less than 24 hours, Eurovision is singing a different tune. Organizers said on Friday that Russia will not be allowed to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest, according to a statement. The decision comes less a day after the European Broadcasting Union initially decided it would allow a performer to represent the country, which this week invaded Ukraine, in the competition. “The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has announced that no Russian act will participate in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest,” the statement said. “The decision reflects concern that, in light of the unprecedented crisis in Ukraine, the inclusion of...

Italy has won the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam with their song Zittie e Buoni. Måneskin singer Damiano David shouted "Rock and roll never dies" as the four-piece group collected their glass microphone trophy. It was another disappointing night for the UK, with James Newman's Embers scoring nil points. It is the fifth time the UK has come last, and the second time it has received nil points.

Among the many victims of Covid-19 is this year's Eurovision Song Contest. When its cancelation was first announced, Mark harked back to its Boom-Bang-a-Bang Ding-Ding-a-Dong heyday and talked to Dana about a lovely exception to that rule. Last night, the BBC, in lieu of the actual competition, invited viewers to vote for the all-time greatest Euro-blockbuster. The winners, not surprisingly, were the most successful act ever to come out of Eurovision. It was all more harmonious in the old days. One recalls the 1990 Eurovision finals in Zagreb, when the charming hostess, Helga Vlahović, presented her own fair country as...

Little Big will represent Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam with the song Uno.

Hungary has pulled out of the Eurovision Song Contest amid speculation that the annual competition is too queer for the country’s pro-family government. Hungary has not given an official reason for the withdrawal. However, a source at Hungary’s broadcaster, MTVA, reportedly said staff believed the move was about Eurovision’s association with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transvestite (LGBT) decadence and degeneracy. “I was not surprised. It comes from the institutionalised culture of MTVA,” the anonymous source told a British newspaper in a report published Wednesday. The source said no explanation had been provided internally, but that positive coverage of queers issues...

The day has come! After months of preparation and two Semi-Finals, acts from 26 countries will compete in the Grand Final of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. The result will be determined by a combination of expert juries and viewers from all 41 participating countries. The show will feature special guest performances from reigning Eurovision queen Netta, former winners Dana International, Conchita Wurst and Måns Zelmerlöw, as well as Eurovision icon Verka Serduchka. And... earlier this week we could also confirm that Madonna will perform as guest star during the show! The Grand Final of the 64th Eurovision Song Contest...

TEL AVIV, May 15 (Reuters) - The Eurovision Song Contest has found few fans in a famous mosque in the Israeli host city, where worshippers have complained that the gaudy festivities are disrupting their observances of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. A "Eurovision Village" pavilion set up on the Tel Aviv beachfront to host parties is located directly opposite the century-old Hassan Bek mosque, named after an Ottoman governor and frequented by Israeli Arabs from nearby Jaffa. The 41-country songfest has been a focus of pro-Palestinian boycott calls, and some Muslims fasting daily as part of Ramadan resent the...

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel’s webcast of the Eurovision Song Contest semi-final was hacked with animated images of explosions in host city Tel Aviv, which the national broadcaster blamed on Hamas militants... After the 41-country competition kicked off on Tuesday with a first semi-final, Kan’s webcast cut to animated satellite footage showing explosions in Tel Aviv set to a menacing soundtrack. Kan played down the hack, noting that the evening ended without further incident as Greece, Belarus, Serbia, Cyprus, Estonia, Czech Republic, Australia, Iceland, San Marino and Slovenia made it through to Saturday’s finals... ...Palestinians and their foreign supporters have...

Without a song, the day would never end; the road would never bend. In the purple dusk of twilight time, the music is a beautiful melody that haunts one's reverie. Yet the news that the Eurovision song contest (Eurovision) will be held in Tel Aviv, Israel has produced an outcry from the usual suspects, unrelentingly hostile toward the State of Israel. Participants in the annual contest, more than 50 countries, primarily but not confined to members of the European Broadcasting Union, submit an original song to be performed on live TV or over the radio. The contest has been won...

Dame Vivienne Westwood, Peter Gabriel and Wolf Alice are among 50 artists who have called for the Eurovision Song Contest to be relocated from Israel. Citing human rights concerns, they have signed an open letter urging the BBC to ask organisers to move the contest. "Eurovision may be light entertainment, but it is not exempt from human rights considerations," they wrote.

Hardly anybody in America cares about the annual Eurovision Song Contest, and that's just as it should be, given that on the whole, it's almost as horrible a viewing experience these days as the Oscars or Emmys. But in Europe, Eurovision is as big as ever – almost as big a draw as the Super Bowl in the U.S., if you can imagine a Super Bowl that no straight man would ever be caught dead watching, but that is a magnet for gays, teenage girls, gays, a scattering of the senile and feebleminded who happened to have left their TVs...

Organizers of a music festival in Düsseldorf, Germany, withdrew their invitation to composer and singer Brian Eno over his longtime involvement in attempts to boycott Israel, JTA reported on Friday. Eno was slated to appear at the Electricity Conference festival in October, but last week he was among a group of artists who signed a letter urging a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest that will be held next year in Israel. Festival organizer Rüdiger Esch told the Westdeutsche Zeitung that it “was the only right decision” to disinvite Eno because “we don’t want to invite anyone who supports activities...

Two European Parliament lawmakers from Ireland on Sunday expressed support for boycotting Israel following its winning the Eurovision song contest, JTA reported. Lynn Boylan of Ireland’s far-left Sinn Féin party wrote on Twitter following Saturday’s win, “Israel wins Eurovision so let’s make BDS more successful than ever in 2019.” Nessa Childers, another Irish lawmaker for the Party of European Socialists, retweeted Boylan’s message, adding the word: “This!” She later wrote: “Jerusalem? The mind boggles. I thought Tel Aviv.” Órla Nic Biorna, a regional lawmaker for Sinn Féin, an Irish nationalist movement that was affiliated with the now-defunct Provisional Irish Republican...

The victory of Israeli, Netta Barzilai, and her song 'Toy' in the May 2018, Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal, was not so much amazing or spectacular. The talented young lady's unremarkable song, 'Toy', resembles more of a techno 'Hokey Pokey' or contemporary 'Chicken Dance' rather than a vocal masterpiece. However, what was remarkable were the words she used in her victory speech saying, "Next year in Jerusalem!" What does her phrase mean? 2000 year ago the Jewish people were expelled by the Romans from their land and dispersed to the four corners of the earth (even China!). Since then...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday with an homage to Israel’s winning Eurovision song “Toy,” performed by Netta Barzilai. Instead of “boker tov” —  “good morning”–  Netanyahu opened his on-the-record remarks to cabinet ministers with “boker toy.” Israel’s victory, its first since 1998, means it wins the right to host next year’s finals, which has transformed in those intervening decades into a massive extravaganza with two rounds, tens of thousands of fans, and millions more tuning in around the world. “These days, Jerusalem is blessed with many gifts,” the prime minister said Sunday. “We received another...