Eurovision: that time a Palestinian almost sang

It’s 2025, and people are again asking why Israel is allowed to take part in the Eurovision – and why Palestine isn’t. There’s a very simple explanation for the second question. Palestine is not a member of the European Broadcasting Union that organises the Eurovision. Yet last year a Palestinian performer decided he would try anyway – and an online petition wants to give him a second chance in 2025 as well.

After visiting Iceland a few times to work with the group Hatari, the Palestinian singer and filmmaker Bashar Murad noticed that Eurovision candidates do not necessarily have to be from the country they represent. The example he gives: Celine Dion, who sang – and won – for Switzerland in 1988.

With songwriter Einar Stefan (from Hatari that already represented Iceland once), he put together the track “Wild West” and submitted it to the Icelandic organisers for the 2024 edition. The colourful fake Country & Western track reached second spot but was pipped to the post by the house track “Scared of Heights” by Hera Björk, which ultimately didn’t get very far.

A petition for Murad for 2025

In the run-up to the Eurovision 2025 final on May 17, an online petition was started to try and get Murad a spot on the show. That’s not going to happen. There is no way a country that is not a member of EBU can appear.

On the other hand, finding a guest spot somewhere on the show could be a possibility. For one thing, it would go a long way to restoring the Eurovision’s disastrous reputation in this issue. It would also lift the atmosphere on the night.

If this sounds unlikely, bear in mind that none other than the pope made a phone-in appearance at the San Remo festival 2025. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Meanwhile, Murad has a number of European concerts between now and August 2025.

Bashar Murad 2025 concert dates

May 10 Athens Music Week (Greece)

May 25 Ravenna Festival (Italy)

Jun 1 Sun Kawkab Bashar (Shubbak festival – UK)

Jun 7 Sat Baleine Festival (La Ferté-milon – France)

Jul 1 Tue Festival Convivencia (France)

Jul 11 Fri Festival d’Avignon (France)

Jul 19 Sat FMM Sines 2025 (Portugal)

More details on Bashar Murad.

Wild West lyrics

Several people have pointed out that the Wild West lyrics are a bit “clunky”. That’s my feeling as well, but there is an exaplanation. It’s important to keep a good meter in lyrics. The difficulty with the words of “Wild West” is that the accent sometimes falls on weak words. I’ll give an example from the opening verse. I’ll put the accented words in caps:

I’m on THE road again / How did it come to this? / Don’t know where I’m going / But I’m looking for eternal bliss

I’m like A rolling stone / I can’t stay in one place / When you start to get bitter and you wanna get better / You gotta change the taste

In these cases, the accent should have been on the more important words “road” and “rolling”. Bear it in mind when you have longish lines like these.