Song Review: "Hurricane"

Ms. Glazerman -- May 15

Click HERE to watch the song performed live at Eurovision

Click HERE for the lyrics

Last week, Israel’s 5th place finish at the Eurovision song competition represented a small yet meaningful triumph for the embattled country, thanks to an inspired performance by singer Eden Golan.

Eurovision sent Israel’s first song entry for the 2024 competition back for revision.  The original title “October Rain” -- a more explicit reference to the massacre by Hamas terrorists on October 7 -- was deemed too political for the annual competition.  When Golan performed the edited version “Hurricane,” she faced hostile protests outside and booing in the venue, and required heightened security at the Swedish event.

That Israel finished 5th overall defied the odds, given the global opposition to the Jewish state and its war against Hamas in Gaza.  In fact, the song placed 2nd in audience voting.

A dramatic and boding rhythm yields to an understated first verse that features Golan’s smooth and haunting vocals with simple keyboard accompaniment.  The song opens with longing and sadness of reflected shadow and light:  “Writer of my symphony, play with me / Look into my eyes and see / People walk away but never say goodbye / Someone stole the moon tonight, took my light / Everything is black and white / Who’s the fool who told you boys don’t cry?”

Golan’s voice builds in intensity and pitch at the chorus when she sings “Every day, I’m losin’ my mind / Holdin’ on in this mysterious ride.”  The second verse builds on this energy with deep bass and percussion, and Eden’s live dancers complement her vocals with dramatic motion.

Despite modification of the lyrics to be less political, the anguish of a nation is still in evidence.  “Living in a fantasy, ecstacy” alludes to the all-night rave, the Supernova Music Festival, where more than 360 young people were killed (in some cases, after being raped) by Hamas on October 7.  When Golan asks, “Who’s the fool who told you boys don’t cry?” Israelis see their sons and brothers who witnessed the aftermath of Hamas’s atrocities or lost friends in the initial attack and ongoing fighting.  “Promise me you’ll hold me again” reflects the nation’s longing for the return of 130 hostages still languishing in Hamas tunnels under Gaza.  

At the end of the second chorus, Golan cries out, “I’m still broken by this hurricane, this hurricane” before the music halts percussively and then explodes into a final burst of instrumentals and melodic wailing, an emotional outpouring of pain and suffering that cannot be contained in words.

The song ends where it began, quietly -- if with a hopeful gesture, this time -- expressed in Golan’s native Hebrew: 

לא צריך מילים גדולות, רק תפילות (No need for big words, only prayer

אפילו אם קשה לראות Even if it’s hard to see

תמיד אתה משאיר לי אור אחד קטן You always leave me one small light)