Eurovision Song Contest organizers said Thursday they might ban this year’s Israeli entry, “Push the Button,” because of 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 by the group Teapacks 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 European Broadcasting Union group.”
The song warns about the dangers of nuclear war, but in an interview with the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, band members denied that the song is about Iran, calling that “absurd.”
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-Jewish statements have added to fears in Israel that Iran’s nuclear program is intended to produce weapons that could be used against that country.
Lead singer Kobi Oz said in response, “I’m not worked up over the issue, because I know our song is not political. What caught the eye were the words ‘crazy leaders’ – they decided to interpret them as though they referred to Ahmadinejad. I’m convinced that others will refer to our leaders.
Oz added that “the song is about the state of humanity in general, whereby a minority has access to excessive power. The song could be about the terror in Russia or Spain, or the violence on the streets of England or France.
“Our way of dealing with terror it to laugh in its face. I think the Europeans should adopt this method as well.
The Eurovision contest will be held in Finland for the first time after the local monster band Lordi was the shock winner of the competition last year with their hard-rock entry “Hard Rock Hallelujah.”
The song’s (partial) lyrics are as follows:
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
They’re gonna push the button
Push the button push the bu push the bu push the button
And I don’t want to die; I want to see the flowers bloom
Don’t want a go capoot ka boom, and I don’t want to cry
I wanna have a lot of fun, just sitting in the sun
But nevertheless - he’s gonna push the button
Push the button push the bu push the bu push the button
