Eden Golan certainly never imagined she would be a symbol of hate. But that’s exactly what she became when she was chosen to represent Israel at the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, held in May in Malmö, Sweden, amid the horrors of the Israel-Hamas war. Despite calls for Israel to be banned from the contest, the Eurovision organizers allowed Golan to sing for the country — only after demanding that her song entry be “de-politicized” by removing all references to the Oct. 7 massacre that murdered 1,200 Israelis and started the war.
She was met everywhere she went by hordes of angry protestors; sneered at and insulted by her fellow contestants; and ultimately had to perform in an arena of boos so loud, she could not hear herself sing. Keeping her composure throughout, Golan — who turned 21 just four days ago — managed to make it all the way to the finals, landing second place in the audience vote and fifth overall. She has released a new single, “Older,” and spoke to The Hollywood Reporter from Israel, still jet-lagged from a week in New York City where she helped recognize the somber Oct. 7 anniversary.
Hi, Eden. I understand you performed at the United Nations as part of your New York tour. The UN has been extremely critical of Israel and many representatives walked out on Netanyahu’s speech. How did they greet you there?
I had a great experience. I wasn’t strolling around there and meeting people. I came to perform. I did my job. I came out sang, I got treated well. So I have nothing else to say.
Sounds like it was a positive experience overall, even though it was a somber anniversary.
It doesn’t make sense because we’re going through horrible times. Everything went great, but it was emotionally hard.
And that’s sort of come to define your career now. I’m sure when you were starting out in music, you were just wanting to sing and do positive art and have fun, and then suddenly all this got thrust on your shoulders. I wonder how you deal with that?
I just deal with it. I’ll tell you, it’s not easy. It affects every aspect of my life. It affects every aspect of music. It changed everything. And it also affected my career, because on one hand, everything’s blowing up. And I did Eurovision. I got this huge amount of hatred, but also a huge amount of love. It’s very ironic. I really want to believe that things will change. And as things change, the music changes as well. And at the end of the day, I’m here to heal.
Let’s go back to Eurovision if you don’t mind. How were you chosen as Israel’s representative?
In Israel, the representative is usually chosen through a TV show called HaKokhav HaBa, which translates to The Next Star. I actually got into the contest before Oct. 7. And then Oct. 7 happened, and I didn’t know at all if the show would happen. But it happened, and I’m glad it did. I felt like I did something good and let people have this escapism for a few minutes. From that, I was chosen as the representative for Israel at Eurovision. We had five days to prepare the song and submit it to the EBU [the European Broadcasting Union, the body that puts on Eurovision]. And then the craziness happened. EBU not accepting the song [“October Rain”] and having to rewrite the lyrics. [The EBU objected to what it deemed “political” content in the song’s direct referencing of the Oct. 7 massacre, including the line, “They were all good children, every one of them.” The rewritten song was retitled “Hurricane.”]
So, what was their objection? The song was a tribute to the victims?
I don’t know if I would say a tribute to the victims. “October Rain” was just a song of what we are feeling. And, in my opinion, “Hurricane” says the same thing. That’s what we feel. But people can connect to the song on different levels. People go through internal hurricanes within themselves, through breakups, different things. So people can take it anywhere. But I took it from having to go through Oct. 7.
Speaking of hurricanes, could you give some impression of just how insane it was to experience Eurovision this year?
I felt like I was in a movie. Let me tell you, the security part of this adventure was crazy. I’m still trying to process some things, like having helicopters in the air and snipers on the rooftops, and not being able to go outside without having to disguise my identity and put a wig on. But I’m truly thankful for the Israeli security and the Swedish security force for just keeping me safe and the entire delegation safe, and letting me focus on what I had to focus on, which was to give a great performance and represent my country with pride. And they did their job.
Could you see all the protestors and people screaming your name and all the hate coming at you?
I saw the hate, of course. It’s something like you can’t really fully block out, but they knew how to keep me away from it. Everything was closed. I tried to stay away from news and television.
Were you told that Greta Thunberg, the climate activist, was outside?
I know that happened. I was aware of everything that’s happening, but they would just keep me away from it.
I remember seeing a video of you getting a call from Gal Gadot.
Oh yeah, a second before the finals. That was crazy. I was pinching myself. The woman herself, Gal Godot, called me to wish me good luck. That was amazing.
She was telling you to try to tune out all the hate, right?
Yeah. I mean, we just talked heart to heart, the girls. She sent me lots of love and support to keep doing what I was doing. Yeah, she was lovely. And then I got to meet her not long after that in LA.
I understand inside the arena the booing during your performance was a lot louder than it was on TV.
Yes. They have an anti-booing system, which mutes the boos and turns it into cheers. But yeah, it was intense. You could not hear me. You can search videos on YouTube, and I’m singing, and you literally cannot hear me. Going in, I was convinced I won’t hear the boos. But I definitely could not hear myself. I heard the boos only. So I just had to sing on autopilot. It just lit a fire up in me. A beast was in me. I would do that and get booed a million more times if I had to. I think I drove some people crazy that they didn’t affect me with the boos.
The audience voting landed you near the top.
Second place.
That was an astounding moment for me.
People are quiet. I feel like people are scared. And here they had a chance to show their support and show their love and be anonymous without people knowing. And I feel like the televote said so much without saying anything. It just brought so much hope. It even brought hope in me that there are people who see the reality, and people who see the truth, and people who support us.
Some of your competitors were not exactly models of good sportsmanship. I remember one from Greece was rolling her eyes during the press conference, and then the one from Ireland was crying on the red carpet and threw some kind of tantrum over your placement. What do you say to those competitors?
Good luck. May all your dreams come true. I am praying. Praying for you. I pray for them that they have a good life and that they’re happy.
Are you allowed to have fun? Can you write a fun, happy song? Or you’d need to get farther away from the war?
I can do whatever I want, but when I get into the studio, I cannot disconnect from what we’re going through. It’s still what I’m feeling, what I’m going through, what I’m seeing every day, and what I’m hearing. I have loved ones, friends, up north, literally in Lebanon. You can’t disconnect from it. I don’t feel like it’s right. I don’t want to write something fun right now. It is just not something that comes out of me. So I write what I feel. I’m truly hoping and praying for better days and praying as we go on things get better, and our hostages come back home as soon as possible because it’s been way too damn long. I’m praying for peace and for better days. And as things hopefully get better, the music will change as well.
Have you ever met Netta who won Eurovision in 2018?
Oh, of course. So she’s lovely. She’s such an amazing human being. So inspiring.
Her song was such a great, fun song. It was literally called “Toy.” And now everything’s so dark.
We will have fun again. We will dance again. My new song, “Older,” is not entirely a ballad. It definitely has this feeling that we still try to get up, we still try to dance. There’s this beat. We are trying to live our lives. We’re trying to find light again and find love and find everything. But, at the end of the day, there’s still this pain, this scar that in our soul that will take time to heal. And we will definitely dance again. Our people, our nation. We are strong, loving people, and we’re united, and we’ll get through this. We just need our hostages home, and it will get better.