Eurovision may ban Israeli entry due to lyrics on nuclear war
By The Associated Press
HELSINKI, Finland - 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
"There are some crazy rulers, they hide and try to fool us, with demonic, technological willingness to harm. Theyâre gonna push the button, push the button.â
Maybe they can tell the committee it is about Bush, and it'll be allowed.
I find it interesting that Eurovision is trying to ban this song on the basis that it's the wrong political message to protest a nuclear threat,. However, digging into their past competitors it seems in 1982 a Finnish band entered with a song against the neutron bomb and was allowed to compete. Here is the link directly from the Eurovision site:
The 1982 Eurovision Song Contest took place in Harrogate's Conference centre and was hosted by Jan Leeming. 18 countries participated, Finland came last with a protest song against neutron bombs.