Bambie Thug, Ireland’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, claims to have cried  after Israel qualified for the final to be held on Saturday. 

“It is a complete overshadow of everything, goes against everything that Eurovision is meant to be,” Bambie Thug told journalists ahead of the event at Malmo Arena in Sweden. “I cried with my team.”

The 31-year-old singer and songwriter wore a keffiyeh and carried Irish flags while urging the European Broadcasting Union to show “conscience” and “humanity.”
 
The artist will perform “Doomsday Blue” in the final.

Israel’s performer, Eden Golan, will present her song “Hurricane” at the competition. The track underwent revisions after the initial version, “October Rain,” was deemed too political by the EBU.

Although the contest’s motto is “united by music,” this year’s event has attracted protests from Palestinians and their supporters, who say Israel should be excluded because of its conduct of the war in Gaza.

Thousands of people are expected to march for a second time this week through Sweden’s third-largest city, which has a large Muslim population, to demand a boycott of Israel and a ceasefire in the seven-month conflict. 

In Finland, a group of about 40 protesters stormed the headquarters of public broadcaster YLE on Saturday, demanding it withdraw from the song contest because of Israel’s participation.

Venues across England are canceling their gigs after Palestine protest groups instructed their followers to pressure pubs showing the contest - leading some venues to close due to staff safety concerns.

The Duke of York cinema in Brighton called off its Eurovision event this week, telling ticket holders it was doing so “due to safety concerns for our staff and customers,” the Guardian reported. The Brighton Palestinian Solidarity Campaign called the decision a “massive win.”

DUBAI: Louvre Abu Dhabi is set to display an artwork by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh at the “Post-Impressionism: Beyond Appearances” exhibition running from Oct. 16 to Feb. 9 next year.

The work, “Bedroom in Arles,” depicts van Gogh’s bedroom in his yellow house in Arles, where he set up his studio and lived from September 1888.

The exhibition will be curated by Jean-Remi Touzet, conservator for paintings at the Musee d’Orsay, and Jerome Farigoule, chief curator at Louvre Abu Dhabi, with the support of Aisha Alahmadi, curatorial assistant at Louvre Abu Dhabi.

It will delve into the period known as post-impressionism, focusing specifically on the years between 1886 and 1905. “These two decades were a time of immense artistic innovation and experimentation, marking the transition from impressionism to the explosive emergence of the ‘fauves’ at the Salon d’Automne,” a press release said.

Highlights from the Arab world include two masterpieces by French Egyptian artist Georges Hanna Sabbagh: “The artist and his family at La Clarte” (1920) and “The Sabbaghs in Paris” (1921).