Israel’s attempts at songwashing in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest

In 2024, as Israeli singer Eden Golan performed her song Hurricane in the Eurovision Song Contest ’s grand finale (side note: For those unfamiliar with the contest, John Oliver did a segment on it for Last Week Tonight.) in Sweden, thousands of Palestinians were evacuating Rafah as Israeli troops prepared an offensive on southern Gaza. By then, Israel’s war on Hamas had been going on for seven months, resulting in the deaths of more than 34,500 Palestinians.

Protests against Israel’s participation surrounded Eurovision 2024, not only before and during, but also after the event, ultimately leading to a boycott by multiple countries – including my own country, the Netherlands – from next year’s edition in Vienna.

This week’s paper provides an analysis of Israel’s entry in the 2024 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest and how it is an ultimately unsuccessful attempt at songwashing.

Whitewashing is an attempt to “clean” crimes, scandals, and controversies from someone or something. Well-known examples include Nazi Germany’s exploitation of Berlin’s 1936 Olympic Games to distract from its antisemitism and militarisation (sportswashing), Volkswagen’s Dieselgate (greenwashing), and Israel’s promotion of queer rights to deflect attention from its treatment of Palestinians (pinkwashing).

Songwashing is the musical version of whitewashing that can be done by participating in cultural events, or by creating or altering songs. For example, a state can sponsor a performer, arrange a performance, or submit a song for a musical event to “wash over” alleged or actual wrongdoings and negative perceptions of itself.

Songwashing can be a useful tool in a state’s soft power arsenal to make it seem more legitimate and face less resistance to its wishes. However, songwashing can also backfire and cause soft disempowerment when audiences reject the soft power efforts. Often, this leads to more resistance against the state – not only from audiences that were targeted by the songwashing, but also by others who may repurpose the efforts to push their own agenda.

A recent example of soft disempowerment is Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. This was intended to bolster its questionable international reputation, but instead it heightened awareness about its abysmal human rights record and harsh treatment of migrants, women, and LGBTQ+ individuals.

As you might have guessed, another well-known recent example is Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest.

The Eurovision Song Contest presents itself as a nonpolitical event, but it is clearly political, at least to some extent. Entries may not be official state representatives, but in practice they are seen as synonymous with the state they represent, are broadcast with the name and flag of the state, and points are awarded by countries to countries.

Countries participate not solely to entertain, but to showcase themselves through cultural diplomacy. Participating in Eurovision allows a state to claim it “belongs” and is “recognised” by the international community. Eurovision thus provides an excellent platform for soft power, and by extension, opportunities for songwashing. Through Eurovision, countries can present a European identity for global spectators, while retaining a national and even regressive one for spectators on the home front.

This is especially important for Israel, which is in a longstanding conflict with Palestinians and faces existential attacks about its right to exist as a nation. Eurovision theoretically enables Israel to deflect criticism of its treatment of Palestinians and to claim membership in the broader European community. At the same time, participation can create a sense of national pride among a country’s own citizens.

In practice, participation in Eurovision is more of a double-edged sword for Israel.

Within the context of the war, Israel’s public broadcaster KAN selected 20-year old Eden Golan as the country’s representative after she won television talent show “Rising Star”.

This was already political loaded: the show itself had been delayed because of the war’s outbreak, various singers who took part in the show were killed in the war (three of whom were among the concertgoers massacred on the first day), and one contestant had competed in their military uniform. Golan dedicated her win to the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, and would have been on the war’s frontline herself had it not been for her participation in Eurovision.

Additionally, the Israeli political establishment supported and promoted Golan as Israel’s entry for Eurovision 2024: Israeli president Herzog formally hosted Golan before her departure to Malmö (side note: Where the contest was held) and prime minister Netanyahu formally endorsed her entry to Eurovision.

Many called for Israel to be banned and for a boycot of Eurovision 2024, arguing that the EBU (side note: The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is the organiser of the Eurovision Song Contest.) applied contradictory standards by banning Russia for its illegal invasion of Ukraine but not genocidal Israel.

Opposition to Israel’s involvement in the contest focussed on KAN, the Israeli song (side note: More on this later.), and Golan. Things got so bad that death threats were made against Golan, prompting the EBU to issue a formal statement condemning abuse and harassment of artists, and spurring the head of the Israeli secret service, Shin Bet, to personally inspect Malmö. Moreover, the Israeli presence at Eurovision increased Sweden’s terrorism alert levels, as it had likely become a priority target for Islamist terrorist groups.

Calls to ban Israel ultimately failed, with the EBU saying that Eurovision is a competition between public service broadcasters rather than a contest between governments, and that KAN met all the competition rules for that year. In response, protests erupted across Malmö, both before and during the contest. Golan’s performances received a mixed reaction from audiences, with boos muted by anti-boo technology deployed by the EBU.

Israel’s song choice was controversial. The song, originally titled “October Rain”, included numerous references to the war’s start on 7 October 2023, casualties, Hamas, and Israeli hostages.

Eurovision organisers quickly disqualified the song as political, demanding that Israel revise the lyrics or submit a new song. Initially, KAN refused, preferring to be barred from the contest. It was not until Israel’s president intervened that KAN reversed its position and commissioned the song’s writers to modify the submission so it better conformed to the contest’s rules.

Renamed “Hurricane”, the song now appears to be apolitical by omitting overt references to the war, but it can still be easily interpreted as a song about the war. Based on interviews with Golan and the song’s domestic reception, it is still widely perceived as political by Israeli audiences.

When the framework of songwashing is applied to Israel’s 2024 entry to Eurovision, we can see that Israel adopted both a culturalist and a neo-propagandist approach. “Hurricane” aimed to improve Israel’s image for an international audience, while at the same time expressing empathy and assuaging the fears of its own citizens.

By participating in Eurovision 2024, Israel intended to wash away questions about its legitimacy and to show that it is a “normal”, rather than a pariah state. This is made evident by the public support and endorsements from the president and prime minister, and in president Harzog’s intervention to ensure that Israel could take part and use Eurovision as a soft power tool.

Revising the song from “October Rain” to “Hurricane” is a clear example of songwashing: the lyrics were reworked to sound like personal sentiments while still leaving the original political message intact. By adhering to the EBU’s rules, Israel could also present itself as a respecter of the arts and a reasonable, constructive member of the international community.

However, despite Israel finishing fifth place in the competition, soft disempowerment arguably neutralised most of its soft power gains.

Israel’s songwashing had the unintended consequence of further spotlighting the war, as well as attracting widespread condemnation for Israel’s actions that were increasingly perceived to be plausible genocide (side note: And no attempt was made to tone down its wartime actions during the event.). Moreover, the dominant points of discussion surrounding Eurovision 2024 centred on the Israel–Hamas war and the controversy over Israel’s participation.