Day 589 - Israel at the Eurovision: Politics, protests and camp

The Times of Israel Daily Briefing

The Times of Israel

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4.4 • 864 Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Eurovision mega-fan Tal Dahan, straight from Basel.

Dahan is a volunteer reporter with the Hebrew-language EuroMix website, which has been the number one source for Israelis about the Eurovision for decades.

This year marks Israel's 47th time participating in the Eurovision, a song contest that was established 69 years ago to unite Europe through music.

We are recording just after the first semi-final and ahead of Israel's participation in the second semi-final on Thursday night. It is expected that Israel's candidate, Yuval Raphael, will make it to the finals on Saturday night with her song, "New Day Will Rise."

Dahan talks about the betting favorites going into Saturday's final and also discusses the politics of the competition.

And so this week, we ask Tal Dahan, what matters now.

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Times of Israel's What Matters now. I'm your host, Amanda Borschal Dan, here with Tal Dahan, a volunteer journalist at this year, the 2025 Eurovision in Basel.
0:15.6	Hi, Tal. Thanks for joining me today. Hi, Amanda. How are you? I am well. And thank you so much for joining me.
0:21.0	We are just after the first semifinal. Israel is going to compete tomorrow night in the second
0:27.1	semifinal. And the final is, of course, late night on Saturday. Late night for old people like me.
0:33.6	So we are going to discuss Israel's history in the Eurovision and the politics surrounding
0:38.7	it when we're back.
0:45.4	Hi, everyone. I'm Michal. And I'm Noam. And we'd like to invite you to wander with us on our
0:50.9	podcast, Wondering Jews with Mikhail and Noam, a podcast from Anfax.
0:55.3	On Wondering Jews, that's Wondering with an O, not Wondering, wondering, we wonder together about
1:01.2	big questions being asked by Jewish people and about the Jewish people, challenging ideas,
1:05.9	exploring traditions, and maybe even arguing just a little bit along the way. Sometimes it's
1:10.7	just the two of us,
1:11.5	and other times we're joined by some fascinating guests.
1:14.6	For us, it's not about arriving at a neatly packaged answer,
1:18.4	but rather about the journey of wandering together
1:21.1	and leaving every episode having learned something new.
1:24.6	So if you love thoughtful discussions that bring fresh perspectives,
1:28.7	join us. Subscribe to Wondering Jews with Michal and Noam wherever you get your podcast.
1:40.9	And we're back. I'm Amanda Borshald Dan here with Tal Dahan from the Euro Mix website.
1:47.1	She is reporting on site in Basel. First of all, Tal, before we dive into the ins and outs and the history of the Eurovision, just tell me what is the atmosphere like right now in Basel for you.
1:59.4	Okay. It's actually really complicated because I see a lot of protests
2:03.9	against us, of course, pro-Palestinian protests outside, for example, in the turquoise carpet,
	...

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