Bashar Murad said he wanted to use his song to “illustrate” the difficulties Palestinians face in making their voices heard.
Palestinian pop singer Bashar Murad hopes to represent Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest in May and bring “a Palestinian voice to the main stage”.
Iceland is expected to choose its candidate for the annual singing competition, which takes place in the Swedish city of Malmö, on Saturday.
Murad enters the national final with a song co-written by Einar Stefansson of the Icelandic band Hatari, known for holding a banner showing Palestinian flags during the 2019 Eurovision contest.
Even though the competition presents itself as an apolitical event and can disqualify those it considers to be breaking the rules, the global political context often weighs on decisions.
In 2022, Russia was banned from participating in the competition after several countries called for its withdrawal due to its invasion of Ukraine.
In light of the war in Gaza, some artists called on competition organizers to exclude Israel from the competition as well.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the competition, said last week it was examining the lyrics of the Israeli song for possible references to the October 7 Hamas attack, which would against the rules of the competition.
Israel threatened to withdraw from the competition if its song, October Rain, by Eden Golan, was rejected.
But in the Icelandic national qualifiers, singers of any nationality can participate if they sing their song in Icelandic in the first semi-final.
Murad, who was born and lives in occupied East Jerusalem, said it was difficult to learn the song in Icelandic, but he found some similarities with Arabic.
His entry, Wild West, tells the story of overcoming challenges and chasing dreams against all odds.
“I wanted to illustrate how many obstacles we as Palestinians have to overcome to be heard… we are excluded from all the dominant platforms,” he said.
“Everyone has theories about my participation. And everyone is politicizing my existence when in reality I am just a human who had a dream and who applied to this competition in a fair and equitable manner.
Asked if Mourad wanted Israel to participate in the competition, he replied: “Of course, I don’t want my occupier there. »
“But my main goal right now is to be able to bring, for the first time in history, a Palestinian voice to the main stage.»
Israel has won the competition four times and views the competition as a barometer of its international standing.