Palestinian pop star tipped to represent Iceland at Eurovision

He is seen driving through a grove of oranges in the West Bank after hearing how important music is to Palestinian identity. He flies over the separation barrier and looks down wistfully at the Al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem.

Eventually he lands in a snowy landscape that resembles Iceland. After performing a Dabke, a Palestinian dance, the final image shows two cowboy versions of Murad duelling in the snow. An evil-looking cowboy wearing black, draws a pistol, while a friendlier version, wearing white, responds with a snowball, suggesting a power imbalance between the two fighters.

The Wild West music video ends in an Icelandic setting with a duel between the singer with a pistol and the singer with a snowball

“This is my personal experience of living in Jerusalem and being born under occupation, being separated from other Palestinians and having to pass through checkpoints to get to them, and not being able to travel to Gaza,” Murad told the Times. “I believe in the power of music and art, and through expressing my personal experience hopefully I can express a broader message as well.”

Storm clouds are gathering too over Israel’s song October Rain, putatively a ballad about drab, autumnal weather. Organisers are scrutinising the song for any double meaning after critics pointed out the lyrics could be interpreted as a commemoration of the victims of the October 7 Hamas attacks.

“They were all good children, every one of them,” sings Eden Golan, the 20-year-old Israeli pop star. “There’s no air left to breathe, there’s no place, no me, from day to day”.

Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel, warned the organisers not to tamper with the song. “I think it’s important for Israel to appear in Eurovision, and this is also a statement because there are haters who try to drive us off every stage,” he told the Times of Israel.

Eurovision forbids political songs and has warned contestants to avoid controversy in their lyrics. But the war in Gaza is testing the impartiality of the competition, which was first staged in 1956 as a way to heal divisions in Europe after the Second World War. Officials in this year’s host city are preparing for multiple demonstrations if Israel sends an entry to Malmo.

Aside from Iceland, more than 1,000 musicians in Sweden, where the final will be hosted, have written an open letter calling for Israel to be banned from this year’s competition. Finnish artists have called on its public broadcaster to support a ban and Irish activists have petitioned the Irish public broadcaster RTE to do the same.

Attempts to smuggle political messaging into bland pop are nothing new and organisers have previously waded into complex geopolitical rows. Russia was excluded from Eurovision following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra won that year and Iceland has surged into the top five in bookmakers’ odds as pro-Palestinian supporters flock to Murad’s campaign.

“My intention was to write something that isn’t explicitly political because I want to make pop music,” Murad said. “The song at its core is just about a person who has big dreams and feels like the odds are stacked against them.”

Murad, from East Jerusalem, began collaborating with musicians from Iceland in 2019

DAVID CORIO/REDFERNS

Malmo has a large Islamic population with an estimated 25–30 per cent of its 360,000 residents thought to be Muslim. Police admit that weekly pro-Palestinian marches are causing “a strain on resources” but are planning for “spontaneous manifestations around the conflict between Hamas and Israel” during Eurovision week, May 6–11.

“I think the answer is pretty clear if I want my occupier to be there or not,” Murad said.

But the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which runs the competition, has insisted upon the unique circumstances surrounding Russia’s removal in 2022 and dismissed activists’ calls for Israel to be thrown out.

“It is not a contest between governments,” Noel Curran, the director-general of the EBU, said.

Born in East Jerusalem, Murad is known as the “Palestinian Lady Gaga”. He frequently performs in a dress and sings about issues including gender identity.

Murad first began working with Icelandic musicians following a protest that occurred when Israel hosted Eurovision in Tel Aviv in 2019. To boos from the crowd, the BDSM-wearing Icelandic contestants, Hatari, unveiled a Palestinian flag after they performed their industrial-techno song Hatred will prevail.

The band later collaborated with Murad on another song about Palestinian resistance. “It was such an iconic moment, it’s one of the highlights of my life,” Murad said, remembering he nearly crashed his car returning from a gig when his friend showed him what had happened.

Murad has now progressed to the final round of voting on Saturday to choose Iceland’s song and said it was his dream to bring the competition back to Reykjavik. Iceland has a close relationship with the Occupied Palestinian Territories, formally recognising the state of Palestine along its 1967 borders in 2011, in contrast to major European countries, including Britain, France, Germany and Italy.

“I live and breathe occupation, and I don’t believe in silencing myself,” said Murad.

Eurovision: a history of controversy

Finland, 2013: Krista Siegfrieds caused a stir by kissing a female backing dancer on stage to push for same-sex marriage to be legalised.

Azerbaijan, 2009: Citing “national security”, authorities in the country called in for questioning 43 people who they believed had voted for the entry of arch-rival Armenia.

Belgium, 1986: Sandra Kim, the country’s victorious entrant, was revealed to be just 13, not 16 as thought. It led to an unsuccessful attempt to overturn the result.

Portugal, 1974: The country’s song E depois do adeus was later used as the pre-agreed radio signal to start an armed coup which led to the overthrow of the government.