Madonna has never been one to shy away from controversy and now she is due to fly into the eye of a Eurovision storm.
The 60-year-old singer will appear at the grand finale of the contest in Israel next month despite calls from other musicians and writers to boycott the show. The $AU1.82 million bill for her to perform two songs is being stumped up by a Canadian billionaire who is keen to counter the boycott.
Madonna’s decision dismayed pro-Palestinian organisations, including the American organisation Jewish Voice for Peace, which issued an open letter calling on her to reconsider. Others have been urging all states participating in Eurovision to boycott the contest in Tel Aviv, so far to little avail.
In France there have been street demonstrations. Anti-Israel protesters also disrupted a live performance on French TV by Netta Barzilai, the Israeli singer who won last year. The network France Television said that it would resist calls for a boycott because “song has no frontiers”.
The Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has allegedly sent letters to all European states joining the competition this year urging them to rethink. Almost 100 LGBT groups are said to have signed up to the BDS campaign as well.
In Britain, before a BBC event to choose a singer for the contest in Tel Aviv, 50 artists, writers and musicians, including the Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters and the film-maker Mike Leigh, signed a letter declaring that “for any artist of conscience this would be a dubious honour”.
The row came as Binyamin Netanyahu, the country’s 69-year-old leader, was fighting to become Israel’s longest serving prime minister after a dead heat election.
In France there have been street demonstrations. Anti-Israel protesters also disrupted a live performance on French TV by Netta Barzilai, the Israeli singer who won last year. The network France Television said that it would resist calls for a boycott because “song has no frontiers”.
The Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has allegedly sent letters to all European states joining the competition this year urging them to rethink. Almost 100 LGBT groups are said to have signed up to the BDS campaign as well.
In Britain, before a BBC event to choose a singer for the contest in Tel Aviv, 50 artists, writers and musicians, including the Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters and the film-maker Mike Leigh, signed a letter declaring that “for any artist of conscience this would be a dubious honour”.
The row came as Binyamin Netanyahu, the country’s 69-year-old leader, was fighting to become Israel’s longest serving prime minister after a dead heat election
Read the article by Will Pavia and Charles Bremner in The Australian.