Amir, the French-Israeli singer who represented France at Eurovision 2016, released a new video this morning for his song “Supernova,” written in memory of the victims of the Nova Festival in the October 7 massacre.
The October 7 massacre claimed many victims in Israeli society and dragged the country into a prolonged war, the consequences of which are still evident a year later. Despite waves of hatred and antisemitism, many artists worldwide, both Israeli and foreign, expressed support for Israel and its pain. Some took initiative and released songs in memory of the victims.
Amir’s Tribute: “Supernova”
Amir Haddad, the French-Israeli singer who represented France at Eurovision 2016 and finished sixth, is one of those artists. In September, he released a song called “Supernova” (named after the Nova festival) in memory of the victims of the massacre at the party. This morning, he released the official video for the song, which was filmed recently.
The Song and New Video
Amir wrote the song with Stav Beger, the producer and composer behind many hits in Israeli music and Eurovision in particular, including Israel’s fourth Eurovision win, “Toy,” and the song written about October 7 that brought Israel fifth place at Eurovision 2024, “Hurricane.” Musician Nazim Khaled, who co-wrote the song “Requiem” performed by singer Alma at Eurovision 2017, also contributed to the writing.
The song presents the story of people meeting at a party and falling in love immediately, with the atmosphere described positively as the song progresses. Then, alongside the music, an alarm joins in, the music disappears, and the song takes a turn in the chorus when Amir sings:
“We just wanted to celebrate,
Run, run,
We just wanted to celebrate,
Run, run,
I think we’ll kiss later,
Run, run,
It’s not time to celebrate anymore,
Run, run.”
In the video, we see people celebrating and enjoying the music until that first alarm interrupts everything. The revelers start to flee, and from there – chaos, confusion, fear. We see people running in all directions, searching for their loved ones in the inferno, those for whom this was their last dance. Amir managed to summarize October 7 at the Nova festival in a three-minute clip that shows viewers what happened to the revelers at the party on that terrible day, and sweeps listeners to feel, even a little, as if we ourselves were there.
Feelings After October 7 and Writing the Song
In an interview with lepoint.fr, Amir talks about writing the album, which included the song dedicated to the memory of the Nova victims. He shares his feelings after hearing about the massacre, writing the song, and about that music festival that turned from paradise to hell.
“I feel like I experienced personal grief and collective grief. The original date to start work on the album was October 8. We were all in pain because of what happened, Jews and non-Jews, it didn’t matter, we were in pain as human beings. There was a particularly dark atmosphere that took away my desire to work on the album. We postponed our meeting and when we met again in January, we felt we had all recovered from October 7. It became a burning issue that we had to talk about in this album.”
Amir shares that he also felt pain as an artist, in light of what started as a music festival where people celebrate and dance and turned into a nightmare on earth:
“This tragedy happened in a refuge where people come to sing, dance, love, drink, fall in love. I saw in this attack a reflection of injustice. Beyond the terrorist attack, it was absolute barbarity against the absolute opposite – a festival of peace! If I have to condemn something from October 7 – and there’s a lot to condemn – this would definitely be what affected me the most. I wanted to turn it into an experience where the listener really feels like they’re at a party until the alarm starts and the music stops. We really recreated the stages of this event to create this transition from paradise to nightmare and thus affect the listener as well.”
When asked if he considered including a political message in the song, he replied that this was exactly what he wanted to avoid.
“I wanted to include a human message and not open up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the song. Every person should be able to condemn what happened that day. No matter what happens afterwards. People like to compare a terrorist attack to a war – these are two different things in my opinion. I decided to focus on the first hours of October 7, because if we don’t understand what happened that day, we’ll have a problem understanding the development of the drama that is still ongoing.”
France in Eurovision 2016
Amir, who was directly selected on February 2016, represented France with his song “J’ai Cherché”. France advanced directly to the final, being one of the Big 5 countries, and in the grand final reached sixth place with 257 points, a particularly high achievement for France after several less successful years. France was ranked third by the jury panels in the final with 148 points, while the televoting audience placed France ninth with an additional 109 points.
