So the Israeli act-choosing process, the rather lumply titled The Next Star For Eurovision 2016, has been tootling along in a mild X Factory fashion for little while now, minding its own business, and not really bothering anyone... until now.
During the auditions, a little raggle taggle beach troubador called Maor Gamliel shuffled cheekily onto the stage clutching a teddy, and started to sing a derivative little ditty about an apparent friend of his. Said friend was said to be gay, but hadn't come out yet - even though all of his friends already knew. In the right hands this could be a sweet natured, if a little ill-advised, kind of song, and indeed just listening to it untranslated it comes across as mildly inoffensive, if not a little drippy.
However, despite a pair of the show's openly gay judges finding it mildly amusing, some of the lyric lines are a bit near the knuckle, with a number of old time stereotypes being rolled out. Subsequently, sections of the country's LGBT community are up in arms about the whole thing, claiming the performance should never have been allowed to air.
So what do you think? Innocent yet hamfisted attempt at covering a difficult issue light-heartedly, or willfully ignorant and offensive? We don't have the live video from the show itself, but the clip above is of the song in question, and our friends at WiWi Blogs have translated the lyric for us here. We'd be interested to hear what you think...
As a gay man myself, I'm not offended by this song at all, I think it's rather amusing and good-natured. Yes, of course, it's playing with stereotypes, but come on, it's a lighthearted little song, not a thesis. If Wiwi's translation is to be trusted (and I'm assuming it is), it also contains the lines "very cool to be gay" and "there's no right or wrong", so the general mood of the song clearly is supportive: a straight guy wanting to help his gay friend to finally come out. Yeah, he is mocking him a bit along the way, as good friends do, but in a good natured and accepting way. How can this be offensive? I'm thankful for the important job LGBT activists are doing, and of course there's a lot to be done, but sometimes they're overdoing it and come across as humourless, which I believe is counterproductive in terms of acceptance. I see Maor as an ally, not an enemy.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm pretty much with you on this one, Aufy old chap. As a non-gay man (yes, there are a few of us these days!) it's tricky for me to completely gauge how this will be received, but I'm leaning towards the dumb but ill conceived rather than the all out ignorant. But I'm sure we'll hear plenty of opinions from all sides at some point - if people Re even watching at this point, that is!
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