If you have ever watched the Eurovision song contest you will know that the songs selected tend to be bland little ditties. For the past fifty years the winning entries tended gain to some measure of short term success then fade into merciful obscurity.
Looking through the list of past winners the only song I can personally recall is ABBA's "Waterloo", the 1974 winner.
Last year a Finnish heavy metal band, Lordi , won, a slight break with tradition of perhaps.
A little surprisingly Israel has won this contest on three occasions. The last Israeli winner being the transexual Dana International with "Diva" in 1998.
A song more typical of the Eurovision genre than Lordi's.
However it is entry selected by Israel for the 2007 contest that is causing the Eurovision Song Contest organizers some heartburn.
Eurovision is threatening to ban Israel's entry for its annual song contest in because of its "inappropriate" political message. "Push the Button", the song from one of Israel's most experienced and popular bands, Teapacks, has lyrics that go to the heart of the country's most prevalent security fears, but in tones tinged with irony.
The words of the song - in English, French and Hebrew, - have already been interpreted as addressing fears of a strike by Iran as well as attacks by Palestinian militants. In one verse the band sing: "The world is full of terror/ If someone makes an error/ He's gonna blow us up to biddy biddy kingdom come/ There are some crazy rulers they hide and try to fool us/ With demonic, technologic willingness to harm."
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".
If you are curious you can watch the song here
Personally I think Israel selecting this song is an attempt to send a message to Europe while the Eurovision people getting squittery over it demonstrates that this message is something they are not yet ready to hear.
But when it comes down to it, whatever song wins this year, it is likely to be long forgotten by the time there is peace in the Middle East.
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