In the 60 year history of the legendary (and extremely camp) Eurovision Contest most of the winning songs have been innocuous jolly pop-lite sing-along songs . Think Sandie Shaw and Puppet On A String,The Brotherhood of Man and Save All Your Kisses for Me , Lulu and Boom Bang-a-Bang (!), and even Abba and Waterloo.
Over the years they have been a few touches to show it is trying to be contemporary with giving first price to Dana International a Israeli transgender singer, and of course there was the begowned bearded Conchita Wurst in 2014. However as Eurovision hates rocking the boat in anyway at all so the music keeps its very populist vein and is never strays far from being the current version of whatever pop buying teens are into or maybe a soaring ballad.
However that may now change if the contestants from Iceland has anything to do it. They are a techno punk BDSM-loving band/performance art group called Hatari who beat five other other performers winning the right to represent their country which has never ever won in the competition’s long history.
In the media Hatari have heavily criticized Israel, as well as challenged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a traditional Icelandic wrestling match. Well if an Israeli state visit is in order, I’m sure the day trips from Reykjavik will be a handy way of entertaining the delegation.
“It is really absurd to allow a state that repeatedly violates human rights to participate in such a competition, whether the state is called Israel, Russia, Qatar or anything else,” the band said in the interview. “If Iceland’s contestant does not use their influence to point out the obvious, the absurdity of frolicking and dancing at the same time as millions live just a few miles away with reduced freedom and constant uncertainty about their own wellbeing and safety, then we have failed.”
Eurovision have very strict rules that state “no lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political, commercial or similar nature shall be permitted during the Eurovision Song Contest.” So there is a real possibility that Hatari may be stopped before they even start. Which would be a great pity, as win or lose this very homoerotic song of theirs will most definitely liven up the proceedings in Israel in May.
