The dignity of Eden Golan

Two questions dominated last night’s Eurovision Song Contest final in Malmo, Sweden. First, whether 20-year-old Eden Golan, Israel’s entrant, would defy the odds and actually win. And secondly, whether some kind of security breach involving pro-Palestinian protesters would result in the final being disrupted. In the end, proceedings passed off relatively peacefully.

The eventual winner was Switzerland’s Nemo with ‘The Code’, a song mixing rap, pop and opera. A huge public vote helped lift Golan’s entry ‘Hurricane’ into fifth place. The winning song will be forgotten soon enough, suffering the same fate as the vast majority of entries into the Eurovision Song Contest – a competition that has always been treated as a bit of a joke, a high camp homage to musical nothingness.  

This year’s Eurovision (official motto: ‘United by Music’) is unfortunately destined to linger much longer in the memory for reasons that have little to do with the music.