As the Eurovision Song Contest nears with the event taking place in early May, the participating nations have released the songs that will be represented in this year’s competition in Malmö, Sweden.
Israel’s Eurovision representative Eden Golan is expected to perform her song “Hurricane,” which, after many changes and much anticipation, was released on Sunday.
The song’s title and contents underwent several changes until it was finally approved by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It was originally titled “October Rain,” alluding to the October 7 attacks on southern Israel and the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
However, the EBU deemed the song’s lyrics, title, and message to be overtly political, mainly because it supports the State of Israel and the IDF, which caused friction with the EBU and the Eurovision contest, which claimed to be non-political.
Numerous Spotify streams
“Hurricane” was officially approved by the EBU on March 7. With the song’s recent release and increased coverage, it has already received numerous streams. According to X account Eurovision Charts, an unofficial and unaffiliated account that claims to be a “Fan-made account tracking music charts, sales, and streaming data for Eurovision songs and artists,” Golan’s “Hurricane” has received some attention.
Most-streamed #Eurovision 2024 songs on Spotify (March 13): Europapa - 882,367 La noia - 555,254 Unforgettable - 436,232 Zari - 311,049 Mon amour - 182,658 Hurricane - 155,839 Zorra - 115,464 Dizzy - 111,017 Teresa & Maria - 89,860
— Eurovision Charts (@esc_charts) March 14, 2024
According to a tweet by the Eurovision Charts account, as of Wednesday, Golan’s “Hurricane” is the sixth most streamed song among this year’s Eurovision contestants on Spotify, having received already more than 155,000 streams. The account lists the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Greece, and France ranking the highest in terms of streams, and following Israel in sixth place are Spain, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine.