Israel's entry in the Eurovision contest

It has been somewhat controversial.

The message of the song, such as it is, seems to be a perfectly understandable plea not to be incinerated by a nuclear bomb in the hands of a lunatic.

But as performed by a punky Israeli group called the Teapacks, there is some degree of irony to the lyrics, which are sung in English, as well as in French and Hebrew. One verse goes:

"I don't want to die; I want to see the flowers bloom
Don't want to go kaput-kaboom, and I don't want to cry
I wanna have a lot of fun, just sitting in the sun
But nevertheless – he's gonna push the button."

"He" is unspecified. But some among the organizers of this year's contest seem to be worried that the singers might mean the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"It's absolutely clear that this kind of message is not appropriate for the competition," said Kjell Ekholm, the contest's event manager and a representative of this year's host broadcaster, YLE of Finland. "We'll have all the delegation leaders here in Helsinki next week, and I'm sure we'll talk about this case."

What, singing about real things is a no-no? If I recall last years winners, they were a bunch of Finnish Trolls. I mean, really, roll over Beethoven and all that, but Europe used to produce real music, written and performed by real people with real feelings. Where the heck did that go? I like the piece myself.

h/t No Pasaran