After weeks of “Will they? Won’t they?”, the EBU eventually decided to approve a revised version of Israel’s song for Eurovision 2024 earlier this week. Now, Eden Golan has officially released her entry for this year’s contest, which is titled “Hurricane”.
Eden Golan was selected to represent Israel at Eurovision after winning the country’s national selection, HaKokhav HaBa. Her song was chosen internally, after multiple revisions.
Eden Golan – “Hurricane” (Israel Eurovision 2024)
“Hurricane” is an updated version of the song Israel originally submitted to the contest. “October Rain” was disqualified over its lyrics, which were deemed too political. It was largely assumed that the song referenced the 7 October attacks.
Eden Golan’s initial alternative to “October Rain” — titled “Dancing Forever” — was then also rejected. “Dancing Forever” placed second to “October Rain” in Israel’s internal selection.
When Belarus submitted a song that was deemed too political in 2021, it was given one chance to resubmit. When the second song was also rejected, Belarus was expelled from the competition.
Israeli broadcaster KAN originally stood its ground and said it would withdraw from the contest rather than amending the words or switching songs. Speaking to newspaper Ynet, a spokesperson said: “We will not change the lyrics or the song, even at the cost of Israel not participating in Eurovision this year.”
However, they then had a change of heart after Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, requested KAN change the lyrics in order for the country to be present at Eurovision.
Eventually, “October Rain” became “Hurricane”. This new version of the song was then approved by the European Broadcasting Union. In a statement, they said:
“The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) can confirm that the official submission from its Israeli Member Kan has been deemed eligible to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest in May.
“The Contest’s Reference Group, its governing board, made the decision to accept the song ‘Hurricane’ for the upcoming competition after careful scrutiny of the lyrics.”
“It was agreed that ‘Hurricane’ met the necessary criteria for participation in accordance with the rules of the competition.”