Eurovision winner Loreen has defended the contest amid continued calls to boycott Israel’s inclusion.
The singer, 40, won Sweden’s contest for the second time in 2023 with her song Tattoo, 11 years after she first took the crown with Euphoria in 2012.
Israel’s participation in Eurovision has been controversial this year and some believe the country should not be included given the current war between Israel and Hamas.
But Loreen has insisted that the contest brings joy to the millions of people who watch it around the world.
speaking to Sunshe said: ‘The positive attracts the positive and the negative attracts the negative. “If we were to boycott or close this center of positive energy, punishing millions for distortion elsewhere, it would be very destructive.”
Eurovision winner Loreen has defended the contest amid continued calls for a boycott over Israel’s inclusion (pictured during the 2023 contest).
Israeli Eden Golan topped Thursday night’s semi-final in Malmo with her song Hurricane. She will now perform in Saturday’s finale.
‘Right now we need more countries to connect with this, more artists, more creators, more people to generate good energy.
‘Distortion, I call it distortion, these weird things happening are traumatizing us all. Start generating love because that is key to healing traumas and all this negative energy.’
Loreen added that she has stopped checking her social media lately because she “can’t cry all day” while looking at everyone’s opinions.
The Swedish star is only the second artist to win Eurovision twice after Johnny Logan won for Ireland in 1980 and 1987.
Loreen will perform her transcendent new spiritual pop single, Forever via Promised Land Recordings at the Eurovision final on Saturday.
She explained: ‘And now, in the second chapter, Forever, there is an awakening. It is a time when you have gone through all the dirt and dust – you have gone through life – and you can see things clearly. You are leaving all your illusions behind and you are free.’
Earlier this week, Loreen announced her mammoth 2025 UK and European tour kicking off in the Netherlands on February 15 with 20 stops across Europe before heading to Birmingham on March 17, a headline show at the iconic London’s Eventim Apollo on March 19 before moving on. Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol and Glasgow before finishing in Dublin, Ireland at the 3 Olympia on March 27.
Tickets went on sale Friday at 9 a.m. at LoreenOfficial.com.
It comes after Israeli Eden Golan made it through Thursday night’s semi-final in Malmo with her song Hurricane. She will now perform in Saturday’s finale.
Her country’s national security agency ordered Golan to remain in her hotel room early Thursday as thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated in Malmo, calling for her to be excluded from the competition.
Greta Thunberg joined thousands of protesters in the southern Swedish city demonstrating against Israel competing in the famous song contest.
The prediction was correct, with some 5,000 people taking to the city’s streets today, including the young Swedish woman, who was photographed wearing a keffiyeh, a black and white shawl commonly worn to show support for Palestine, around her body in the center of the crowd within a sea of Palestinian flags.
Loreen said: “If we were to boycott or close this center of positive energy, punishing millions for distortion elsewhere, it would be very destructive.”
Israel’s participation in Eurovision has been controversial this year and some believe the country should not be included given the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Loreen added: ‘Right now we need more countries to connect with this, more artists, more creators, more people to generate good energy.’
“Young people are leading the way and showing the world how we should react to this,” Thunberg told Reuters news agency. He declined to comment on why he had joined the protest, saying only that it was “good” that the march took place.
During the demonstrations, smoke canisters in the colors of the Palestinian flag were released and protesters, some of whom carried dogs, small children and bicycles, carried signs with images of Gazan civilians who have been injured amid the conflict between Hamas. and Israel. .
Other banners displayed messages including “welcome to the genocide song contest” and “stop using Eurovision to cover up Israeli crimes.”
Some 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack in Israel and around 250 were kidnapped by gunmen and returned to Gaza. Since then, Israeli attacks on coastal territory have caused more than 34,000 deaths and a humanitarian catastrophe.
According to the Malmö police, there is high security around the delegations of all countries. “We are keeping a little more eye on Israel, of course, because of the situation,” Lotta Svensson, police incident commander, told Reuters on Sunday.
The EBU, which organizes the event, has resisted calls for Israel to be excluded but asked the country to modify the lyrics of its original song ‘October Rain’.
Despite fears about his safety, Golan says he has received a lot of support and hasn’t seen any negative comments about his previous song October Rain.
Commentators thought that some of the original lyrics, such as “There’s no air left to breathe” and “They were all good kids, every one of them”, were about the victims of the Hamas attack and were therefore considered too political.
“I was a little surprised when the European Broadcasting Union didn’t approve the song,” Ms. Golan said.
‘I don’t think the first version was political. The song is about a girl going through her own problems, her own emotions. She had nothing to do with October 7th.
Initially, Israeli state television network Kan, which provided the song, said it would prefer Eden to leave the contest rather than change the lyrics.
Eden celebrated earning a place in the final during the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo.
The 20-year-old singer took the stage to sing the emotional song: Huracán
The song Hurricane was reworked from an earlier song called October Rain, which is believed to reference Hamas attacks against Israel.
Only after an intervention by the country’s president, Isaac Herzog, who asked for the “necessary adjustments”, did he relent.
Ms Golan told the Mail the controversy “caught me by surprise”.
She said: ‘I was shocked and confused. But when they said we had to change the lyrics, I said, ‘Let’s do everything we can to make this happen.’
“I feel that our participation in Eurovision this year is very important and has much more meaning than any other year.”
After several revisions, October Rain was renamed Huracán and now tells the story of a woman emerging from a personal crisis.
Musically, it’s the same song but the lyrics are more generic, the references to the massacre replaced by phrases like “every day I’m losing my mind” and “I’m still broken by this hurricane.”
The ending of the song, which Golan sings in Hebrew, has also been changed.
Her country’s national security agency ordered Golan to remain in her hotel room while thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated in Malmo, calling for her to be excluded from the competition.
The original reward, which made references to poisoned air and dead children, has been changed to: “There is no need for big words, just prayers.” Even though it’s hard to see, you always leave me a little light.’
The singer, who arrived in the city last week wearing a yellow pin, symbolizing support for the release of hostages held by Hamas, insists she is safe in Malmo despite threats against her.
“I am receiving a lot of love and support from my family and the professional team that has become a family.”
He added: “Protests, of course, are not pleasant, but I can’t wait to be on stage and try to make people feel something in the three minutes I have.” I’m very focused on my mission.’