Judaism at the Eurovision

Israel is in the finals after passing the first stage last night.

Seems Chabad is quite busy there in Moscow:

Some 200 guests, among them Israeli diplomats, community members, and the majority of Israel’s delegation to the Eurovision which opened Sunday, enjoyed a spirited pre-Shabbat dinner Friday evening at the Jewish Community Center in Moscow.

Hosting them was Rabbi Yakov Fridman, who heads the center’s division for Israelis and Hebrew speakers...Producer of the Israeli delegation to the Eurovision, Mr. Itzhak Sonnenschein talked about the warm welcome he’s found with Chabad on all of his travels and confirmed that the entire delegation will be back for the coming Shabbat...

I wonder about Mira Awad, the other part of Israel's duo.

She's a Christian Arab.

Where's the EUROPE in Eurovision

Okay, Israel is in but no other Middle Eastern country, although closer to Europe than we (Morrocco, Algeria, etc.).

And Hungary is for sure European.

But I nevertheless thought this item on the Eurovision competition strange:

The winners of the semifinal round, which took place in Helsinki, Finland, included Belarus, Hungary, Turkey, Moldova, Georgia, Solvenia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Latvia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Do Europeans watch this show? Is there no European music?

Losing Before the Competition Begins

I posted the lyrics already and...

Eurovision may ban Israeli entry due to lyrics on nuclear war

Eurovision Song Contest organizers said Thursday they might ban this year's Israeli entry, Teapacks' Push the Button, because of what they termed its inappropriate political message.

The song, to be performed at the contest in Helsinki in May, overwhelmingly won Israel's competition Wednesday.

It is sung in English, French and Hebrew and seemingly refers indirectly to Iran's nuclear ambitions and its hard-line leader, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"It's absolutely clear that this kind of message is not appropriate for the competition," said Kjell Ekholm, an organizer of the contest. "We'll have all the delegation leaders here in Helsinki next week, and I'm sure we'll talk about this case within the EBU [European Broadcasting Union] group."

The song warns about the dangers of nuclear war, and the lyrics of the song refer to demonic and crazy rulers, and say that he's gonna blow us up to ... kingdom come.

There go the Europeans - hiding their heads in the sand.

You can sing about girls, about boys, about gays, about boys & girls, about the spring, the summer, the winter.

You can strum a guitar or a violin.

You can dance and sing, sing and dance or just prance.

You can pretend to be Ghenghis Khan or monsters.

But you can't sing about crazy rulers who might press an atomic attack button.