Israeli rock band Izabo hopes to represent its country at the Eurovision Song Contest final on Saturday in Azerbaijan were dashed when it failed to qualify for the grand final.
Israel has worked on improving diplomatic relations with the Iran neighbours in recent months and even made an agreement to sell the Azaris weapons worth in excess of €1 billion, earlier this year.
The lead singer of Izabo - who take their name from Michelle Pfeiffer’s character “Isabeau” in the 1985 film Ladyhawke - Ran Shem-Tov, can claim further links with the Azerbaijan capital, as his grandfather was born there.
The Israeli Eurovision entry performed at the first semi-final on Tuesday for a chance of making it through to Saturday’s final. Out of 18 entries performing in each semi-final, Israel failed to make the top 10 to progress to the grand final, following the combined vote of national juries and viewers. In addition to the highest placed acts from the two semi-finals, six acts have already secured their passage to Saturday’s show – the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and host and last year’s winner Azerbaijan. Although their song entry, “Time”, will not now feature in the latter stages of the contest, the Israeli band can at least claim one entry in the record books – the five-month-old daughter of one of its members and song entry co-writer Shiri Hadar has been recorded as the youngest ever official delegate entrant by the organisers.
In another twist, Iran recalled its ambassador to Azerbaijan in protest at the country’s decision to host the Eurovision Song Contest. Iranian clerics and politicians had criticised their neighbours for holding what they described as a “gay parade” in a country that, though officially secular, claims a Shi’ite Muslim majority population.
Leading Iranian cleric Ayatollah Sobhani described the move as “anti-Islamic”. The latest tensions follow a breakdown in relations between teh two countries in light of Azerbaijan’s increasing closeness to Israel, which Iran refuses to official recognise as a state. Azerbaijan has taken a hardline against Iranian terror suspects, as well as agreeing to buy weapons from Israel in recent months.
Ali Hasanov, spokesman for Azari President Ilhzm Aliyev dismissed Iranian objection to this weekend’s competition, saying: “I do not know who got this idea into their heads in Iran. We are hosting a song contest, not a gay parade.”

EJP