Jerusalem welcomes Eurovision
The capital invites the public, as well as visitors, to celebrate Eurovision during a four day public broadcasting celebration in the First Station.
Jerusalem residents, as well as visitors to the Israeli capital, are invited to attend a four day public celebration of Eurovision music to be held at the First Station starting from Tuesday evening and ending with the announcement of the 2019 winners on Saturday night.
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion said in a press release that “the Eurovision is one of the largest and most important musical events in Europe” and called the public to use this opportunity to visit “the most beautiful city in the world, Jerusalem.”
Starting on Tuesday at six p.m. D.J Yaeli will play a live set composed of Eurovision songs as the opening of the event will be screened on a wide screen. The events will continue on Wednesday when a special radio booth will be built in which comedian Michal Shem Tov and broadcaster Noam Fathi, among others, will cover the triumphs and losses of the competition.
1978 Eurovision winner Izhar Cohen will perform at an evening party which is meant to go on until the small hours of the night including old Eurovision hits.
Madonna, ahead of Eurovision performance, says BDS won’t stop her music
Pop superstar Madonna struck a defiant chord Tuesday, declaring that boycott calls will not stop her from make a guest appearance during the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv over the weekend.Bird jumps in on Eurovision festivities with 24-hour scooters for revelers
“I’ll never stop playing music to suit someone’s political agenda nor will I stop speaking out against violations of human rights wherever in the world they may be,” Madonna said in a statement to Reuters.
Israel earned the right to host the Eurovision after local singer Netta Barzilai won the contest last year. Pro-Palestinian supporters of boycotting Israel have called for competitors and fans to shun the competition and Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip have threatened to disrupt the event with rocket attacks on the country.
“My heart breaks every time I hear about the innocent lives that are lost in this region and the violence that is so often perpetuated to suit the political goals of people who benefit from this ancient conflict,” Madonna said. “I hope and pray that we will soon break free from this terrible cycle of destruction and create a new path towards peace.”
Last September, some 140 artists, including former Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters, called for a boycott of the song contest. In April, Waters made a personal appeal to Madonna to not perform at Eurovision, saying it “normalizes the occupation, the apartheid, the ethnic cleansing, the incarceration of children, the slaughter of unarmed protesters.”
According to Reuters, Madonna supports several Palestinian projects through her Ray of Light foundation, which encourages social justice and women’s rights around the world.
Madonna, 60, is due to land in Israel on Wednesday morning, accompanied by an entourage of 135 people, ahead of her planned performance during the Eurovision finals on Saturday night.
Bird, a US transportation startup that provides commuters with e-scooters, is stepping up its game in Tel Aviv amid the start of the Eurovision song festival.
Tel Aviv is hosting the Eurovision Song Contest from Tuesday to Saturday, after Israeli singer Netta Barzilai won last year’s contest in Portugal. The competition consists of semifinal rounds on Tuesday and Thursday, followed by the finals on Saturday evening.
Bird said Tuesday its scooters will be available in Tel Aviv, for the first time in any city in which it operates, for 24-hour operations, to help tourists and locals get to Eurovision events at all times. Until now the scooter service was available only until 11 p.m.
The firm, which started providing its services in Tel Aviv last year and now says it has hundreds of scooters deployed there as well as in the adjacent cities of Givatayim and Ramat Gan, is also introducing a new feature in its app that will allow users to reserve scooters 30 minutes in advance of picking them up. That way a user won’t turn up to the pickup point and find the scooter taken by someone else, as sometimes happens.