Saturday, May. 16, 2009
Accidental Provocateurs
The most controversial political gesture ever seen on Eurovision's stage remains a flag incident in 2000. Israel's entrants, Ping Pong, finished their song "Be Happy" by unfurling Syrian flags and calling for peace, to the shock of many in their home country. Israel's broadcasting authority disowned the entry but the truth eventually emerged that two of the group were journalists who wrote about cultural affairs for the newspaper Ma'ariv. They confessed that they entered the Eurovision contest as a joke — although they ended up beating 83 other entries along the way.