Eden Golan, Israel’s representative, receives “Swedish People’s Eurovision Award” after facing hostility at Eurovision 2024.

Eden Golan, Israel’s representative at Eurovision 2024, has been awarded the “Swedish People’s Eurovision Award” through a crowdfunding initiative by Swedish citizens. This comes in response to the challenging atmosphere surrounding Israel’s participation in the contest.

The 2024 Eurovision Song Contest was one of the most challenging editions in the competition’s history, particularly regarding Israel’s participation. Competing artists and various media outlets spoke out against Israel’s particiaption and Eden Golan specifically, with incidents occurring in the “Bubble” and numerous protests taking place.

While the Swedish public awarded Israel 12 points, the jury did not give Israel any points. In response, two Swedish citizens, Dan Katz and Daniel Schatz, initiated a fundraising campaign that raised approximately 215,000 Swedish kronor (about 19,000 euro) from Swedish citizens to present Eden Golan with the “Swedish People’s Eurovision Award.” The organizers aimed to provide her with a positive experience to counteract the events at Eurovision, emphasizing to Israelis that “not all Swedes are anti-Israel.”

Eden donated her prize money to Kibbutz Nir Oz, which suffered significant damage on October 7th. At least 40 of the kibbutz residents were murdered in a massacre. Dozens of kibbutz residents were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, and only some of them have been released so far.

A representative from the kibbutz announced that thanks to Eden’s donation, they will rebuild their supermarket and name it “Eden’s Supermarket” in her honor.

Dan Katz, a Swedish psychologist and musician who co-initiated the project, explained: “The initiative started due to the frustration in Sweden that Eden was treated so badly in Malmö, and that the Swedish jury ignored her fantastic performance – when at the same time, the Swedish public vote had her as the winner. So I and Daniel Schatz set up a crowdfunding for the aid of Nir Oz to honor Edens performace and to show Israel that, in spite of the extremely biased media in Sweden, and the loud mouthed haters, many Swedes stand behind Israel. An anonymous donor also financed the sculpture as a personal gift to Eden. The crowsfunding collected 20 000$ in a couple of weeks, and this was then doubled by Keren Kajemet”.

Daniel Schatz, one of the award’s initiators, stated that “Eden Golan had a complex experience in Malmö due to the hostile atmosphere towards her. Personally, on the train from Stockholm to Malmö, the conductor approached me and kindly suggested, out of concern, that I hide the Star of David necklace I was wearing.”

Richard Herrey, a member of the band “Herreys” and 1984 Eurovision winners, stated: “Today I have a great honor of presenting a prize from one winner to another. During the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden this this year, and despit encountring security issues, challebges, hostilities, Eden, you showed remarkable resilience, your wonderful performance during Eurovision this year won the hearts of the Swedish people. Earning you the maximum 12 points. In the stark contrast to the silence of the jury.”

Eden responded to the award: “Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for this icredible honor given to me by the people of Sweden. I am deeply moved by your support and this prize. As many of you know, My exprerience in Malmo was challenging, but knowing that I in Israel, received the full support from the Swedish people is truly heartwarming.”

Israel in Eurovision 2024

“Hurricane” is the name of the song performed by singer Eden Golan, who was chosen to represent Israel after winning the tenth season of “HaKochav Haba”. Israel advanced to the final after winning the second semi-final with 194 points, and in the grand final reached fifth place with 375 points. In the public vote, Israel came in second place, just 14 points behind the first place.

This is the second consecutive time that Israel has reached the top five, an achievement it had not attained since its streak of successes in 1998-1999.