Coronavirus forces cancellation of Eurovision 2020 music competition

Coronavirus pandemic forces iconic annual music extravaganza, won four times by Israel, to cancel for first time in its 64-year history.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

The Eurovision Song Contest has been cancelled for the first time in its 64-year history due to the coronavirus outbreak, organizers announced Wednesday.

“It is with deep regret that we have to announce the cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam,” Eurovision organizers said in a statement released on their website.

“The health of artists, staff, fans and visitors, as well as the situation in the Netherlands, Europe and the world, is at the heart of this decision,” the statement said. “We are all as heartbroken as they are that the Eurovision Song Contest will not be able to be staged in May and know that the whole Eurovision family across the world will continue to provide love and support for each other at this difficult time.”

Israel was to have been represented at the song contest by Eden Alene, 19, born and raised in Jerusalem and the first Ethiopian-Israeli to represent the Jewish state at Eurovision. Alene, who is currently doing her national service in the IDF, beat out three other talented teenage contenders in a national competition in February.

In a television interview shortly after the announcement, Alene said she realized that canceling the contest showed “how much the situation is terrible” and getting worse with the world fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

“I am horribly stressed by corona,” she admitted on Channel 11. “At the beginning I didn’t agree to be interviewed about it and was even hard for me to get the word out of my mouth, and now I’m trying not to get infected or infect anybody else.”

Alene tried to sound upbeat and said she would have stood a good chance of doing well at the international songfest in which 41 countries compete, with singers and bands being rated by a combination of a panel of judges and phone-in votes from fans in the participating countries.

“I wanted to go. I wanted to do it and I wanted to win,” Alene said, but by the end of the interview the reality finally hit and the visibly distraught singer fought back tears of disappointment.

“I was supposed to celebrate my birthday during the Eurovision. This is so frustrating,” she said. “It’s disappointing. You don’t know how much it hurts inside, but it’s ok.”

Israel has won the popular Eurovision four times since the competition’s debut in 1973.

In 1978, Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta won with the song “Abanib.” Milk and Honey won with “Hallelujah” in 1979. Dana International won with “Diva” in 1998, and Netta Barzilai took the title with “Toy” in 2018.

The winning country also wins the right to host the contest the following year, and following Barzilai’s victory, the 2019 contest was held in Tel Aviv. Although the Israeli entry failed to do well, Israel earned praise for the quality of the event, which attracts thousands of foreign tourists.

The final evening of competition featured a guest appearance by Madonna, who rejected pro-Palestinian demands that she boycott then event and said she would “never stop playing music to suit someone’s political agenda.”