It remains remarkably quiet around Eden Golan, the Israeli Eurovision entry

Malmö, Sweden, is on edge. While ABBA songs (it is fifty years after ‘Waterloo’) sound in the streets, snipers position themselves on the roofs and hundreds of heavily armed police officers with police dogs patrol the streets and around the Malmö Arena. Artists are searched and visitors are not allowed to take bags inside.

DS Video | This was the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest. — © De Standaard

These extreme security measures are due to Israel’s participation, despite loud calls for a boycott due to human rights violations in the war in Gaza. But the organizing European Broadcasting Union (EBU) sees no reason to exclude the country, as long as Israel adheres to the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest. The original song ‘October Rain’ was rejected by the EBU because it clearly referred to the Hamas attack of October 7 and thus violated the politically neutral rules. A number of sentences have been deleted in the renewed ‘Hurricane’. A loaded word like ‘flowers’ – military code for ‘victims’ – has been replaced.

In the meantime, 20-year-old Israeli participant Eden Golan is keeping quiet. In a few interviews (to, among others Reuters and The Times of Israel) she emphasized how representing Israel this year in particular has a deeper meaning, “because of everything my country and our people had to endure. I am here to make my voice heard, my gift from God.”

Locked up in a hotel

Golan was missing from the opening ceremony on Sunday, where the artists arrived on a turquoise carpet. Officially, the reason was Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, the EBU reported. On Instagram, Golan lit candles in memory in a moody black-and-white video.

And now it is remarkably quiet around Golan. While the other Eurovision candidates make fanfare at parties in the city – the Dutchman Joost Klein danced on the stage of a club on Monday – her social media remains quiet. No parties. There is also nothing about the Israeli singer on the Eurovision channels themselves.

It is difficult to determine how great the threat to the participant now is. A pro-Palestine demonstration is planned in the city center on Thursday, the day that Golan performs. 20,000 to 40,000 demonstrators are expected. For her own safety, the singer must stay in her hotel and is only allowed to go outside for rehearsals.

In return for Reuters Golan said she would ignore the protests as much as possible and concentrate on her actions. “It is up to the people to decide what to do. They have the right to make their voices heard, but I focus on my side, which is to deliver the best performance, the good atmosphere and the good people.”

Grew up in Russia

Eden Golan was born in Kefar Sava, northeast of Tel Aviv. She grew up in Russia from the age of six, her parents are of Latvian-Ukrainian descent. In 2022, the family moved back to Israel as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Golan started singing at a young age and participated in various singing competitions, including the Russian Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2015. For two years she was the face of a girl group, and at the age of eighteen she signed her own recording contract. In her songs she mixes dance with pop; last year she had two singles ‘Dopamine’ and ‘Taxi’. She won her place for the Eurovision Song Contest through the TV show Hakokhav haba (Rising star), where she sang songs by Whitney Houston (‘I have nothing’) and Aerosmith (‘I don’t want to miss a thing’).

Her performance on Thursday in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest will be downright aesthetic, based on the first rehearsal images. There will be a very high ring on the stage, which can light up beautifully and has a built-in wind machine. There are steps on either side where the five dancers (three men, two women) can climb. The entire group wears natural colors, beige and gray. Golan, with her back-length hair, wears a cream-colored, long draped dress.

Vocally she is a standout in this competition in a fairly average pop ballad. Disaster presents itself with claps of thunder from the first seconds. Then Golan sings how she has to brace herself, how she dances in the storm. She can really use her voice. Especially towards the end she delivers a few high screams, after which she softly belts out the song in Hebrew.

Watch the music video for ‘Hurricane’ here: