The Wiwi Jury — our in-house team of music unprofessionals — is reviewing and rating the 37 competing songs in Eurovision 2024. Next we review Israel, who have chosen Eden Golan with “Hurricane”.
What did we make of the song? Read on to find out.
Eden Golan – “Hurricane” (Israel Eurovision 2024)
Review: Eden Golan – “Hurricane”
To protect the safety and welfare of our jurors, all scores and reviews will remain anonymous.
Juror A: “Hurricane” arrives as more so a breeze, and not in a good way. The verses are decent, but as the song progresses, one can see how calculated it is. Harking to X-Factor winner singles, the final result is dated and predictable. Drum machine, flourishy chorus, big vocal moment… it’s never a good sign when one can see the cues. Plus, the ending sounds like a bridge that should lead to another chorus, but instead gets jarringly cut as if they forgot the song was meant to be just three minutes long. Unfortunately, this is a dud through and through.
Juror B: An absolute vocal powerhouse, Eden’s “Hurricane” is superbly written and performed with precision. This benefits from being one of the only female ballads of the year in a sea of comedy acts and pop divas – and should it deliver live as strongly as the package it presents, it will be respected. Hitting the high notes is a must here, otherwise, this will fall flat.
Juror C: This is a familiar and somewhat predictable song. However, it’s smartly crafted. The second minute introduces subtle production changes that keep it interesting. And the final minute — with the operatic flourish — could be powerful if Eden nails the vocals. The live is make or break. This just won’t work without stellar vocals.
Juror D: Utilising the Russia 2013-2015 playbook, “Hurricane” mixes powerful vocals, predictable ballad structure, and broad-meaning lyrics to create an entry aimed at catering for as many demographics as possible. However, forcing yourself towards everyone often means satisfying only a handful. Eden is a very capable singer, but unfortunately her material has been crafted out of tired, old tropes. There is little to be inspired about here. Of course, the aforementioned songs all earned left-hand-side results on the leaderboard — and the catch-all nature of “Hurricane” may also allow for such short-term success — but none of them have lived on as Eurovision classics, and time judges them differently.
Israel Eurovision 2024 ranking
We have removed the highest and lowest scores prior to calculating the average. This is to remove outliers and potential bias.
Wiwi Jury verdict: 5.90/10
