The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest was asked on the night to explain the meaning of the lyrics to her song which go: “I’m the bangarang bangaranga bangaranga bangaranga I’m the bangarang”. Bangaranga, she said, was “a feeling everyone’s got in themselves, it’s the moment you choose to live through love not fear and it’s a special energy that everybody’s got, once you feel at one with nature and the universe, you will feel the harmony that you can be whatever you want to be and everything is possible.” Which is something I think we can all agree on.

If you watched the contest (and I have watched it every year since 1975 when the Netherlands won with Ding-a-dong (“ding-a-dong every hour, when you pick a flower”) you’ll know that it was a close-run thing this year between Bangaranga, which was Bulgaria’s entry, and Israel’s song Michelle. All the way through, it looked like Israel might win the thing, but then right at the end Bulgaria topped the public vote and took the title and lots of people seemed to be feeling the bangaranga.

This is not the first time we’ve been here. Israel has always done well at Eurovision, winning four times, but it’s done particularly well in the last few years, finishing fifth in 2024, second in 2025 and second again this year. You’d like to think it’s because Eurovision is a music competition and people objectively assess the songs and judge which are the best, but the truth is Israel’s entries in the last three years haven’t been particularly brilliant – OK but not brilliant – and certainly not deserving of finishing in the top five three years in a row. Something else is going on.

You could hear the something else when Israel’s singer, Noam Bettan, took to the stage on Saturday night: there were cheers from the audience in Vienna but jeers and boos too. Israel’s participation........

© Herald Scotland