Pushing The Wrong Buttons
The knives are out for this year’s Israeli Eurovision Song Contest entry. It seems singing a warning about the dangers of nuclear war is just not on.
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.
Ahmadinejad’s recent anti-Semitic statements have added to fears in Israel that Iran’s nuclear program is intended to produce weapons that could be used against that country.
As opposed to songs about demons, which will win you the contest.
Wings on my back
I got horns on my head
My fangs are sharp
And my eyes are red
Not quite an angel
Or the one that fell
Now choose to join us or go straight to Hell
Update: Here’s the Teapacks song.
Update: The Independent have a (fair) report on the controversy.
Kjell Ekholm, an organiser of the contest, said: “It’s absolutely clear that this kind of message is not appropriate for the competition.” But the threat may say as much about Eurovision’s dogged preference for the bland at all costs as about the song itself.The band’s lead singer Kobi Oz, who is of Tunisian extraction, and is known for his witty and enigmatic lyrics, comes from Sderot, which has born the brunt of Qassam rockets from Gaza, and as a member of a Jewish family from an Arab country is a leading exponent of “Mizrahi cool”.
Another verse says: “Messages are exploding on me/ Rockets are flying and landing on me.” But the song also takes a swipe at the country’s own politics as well as security threats, saying Israelis are caught between “political tricks and kidnapping”.
The song also deliberately projects itself as a counterpoint to the anodyne lyrics of previous Eurovision entries, from Israel as well as other countries. In one section, the band sing: “Here we are in the pre-finals with a song that isn’t about salaam [Arabic for peace], red is not just a colour, it’s more like blood.”
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: General
I wonder if the song was allowed if the “crazy ruler” they refer to was George Bush?
I know, I know, he never said that some other country should be destroyed and he also doesn’t support killing women for being raped; which means that he is a greater danger for the current world order than AJ.
I hate the current world order.
As far as music goes – it is not a great song.
The lyrics are aggressive and chutzpadik but maybe that’s where we’re at right now… just trying to survive.
I hope we make it to Eurovision… will I watch it? Not even if I had a television!
The MySpace pae of the band is here: http://www.myspace.com/teapacks
Not the greatest song in my opinion music wise but it says a lot about what free speech means in Europe is someone is pushing for this to be disallowed.
Well, Eurovision-rules clearly state that political songs or songs with references to politics aren’t allowed. Mainly to observe the peace within the contest (imagine how it would be if Serbia sends in a song about the glory days of Milosevic and Yugoslavia. Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro etc would go on a Eurovision killing spree)
The song isn’t that good, but at least better than Eddie Butler (Israel’s entry of last year)
But I don’t think they will disqualify this song. Maybe they’ll edit it a bit. (like singing in hebrew when the “nuclear-war lyrics” come up)
They’ve allowed political songs before- as long as they had the “right” politics. When the ultra-lame Israeli band Ping Pong went on Eurovision with a song about peace between Syria and Israel, they were actually waving Syrian flags on stage, and no one said a word.
Well actually, they did have that same discussion as now when Pingpong was selected as Israel’s entry to the Eurovision.
The entry was even more in danger when the Israeli brroadcasting company withdrew its support of the entry because of the flags and something with cucumbers
Pushing Da Wrong Buttons:
Israel’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest is causing a stir for it’s allegedly “inappropriate political message.” (Israellycool) Judith Weiss @ Kesher Talk has more videos of the same band, The Teapacks, and remembers that political-themed songs co…
The Eurovision song contest is the John Edwards of musical competitions. Nobody really watches and nobdy really listens.
In 1982 the Finnish entry was a very political song solely about bombs, and nobody had a problem with that. Maybe because the bombs they feared weren’t Iranian but American.
Yet again Israel is singled out.
Please expose this hypocrisy.
Enclosed is a link to the (very poorly translated) words to the Finnish entry back in 1982.
The song title literally means “Sleep while bombs are falling” ie to be unaware of imminent danger and/or oversleep.
http://www.diggiloo.net/?1982fi
And here’s the hilariously inept video for the song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8HdS0ukSwk
I don’t think Eurovision is anti-Israel. I had the good fortune to be studying in Europe at the time Israel *won* the contest with this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ-THgyCVvw
No one seemed to mind the the highly political song “Razom Nas Bahato” from Ukraine 2005. As stated, it’s all about the “right” politics.
I’m not familiar with the specific rules of the competition, but it does seem to me that there are some problems with prohibiting a song just because they don’t like the lyrics or message. There are, to begin with, plenty of critical reasons not to get caught up in the message – as the formalists argued one hundred years ago, the value of a work of art must be separated from personal feelings about the messages, and for many reasons, including the general subjectivity of art, the possibility of irony in lyrics, and the essential benefit of taking political arguments out of the sphere of criticism. Beyond this argument, though, there are the essential roots of rock music in the first place. Its very purpose (and for that matter the purpose of most authentic “art”) has always been to challenge accepted ideas and ideology. To ban a song because it may seem to have a questionable message is to admit that the contest itself is not interested in actual art. There have been plenty of governments in the past that insisted all art be about the task of promoting a certain ideology; surely none of these governments would be a system to aspire to.