Did the pop star Madonna predict the Hamas-Israel conflict four years before it began? No, that's not true: Madonna's 2019 Eurovision Song Contest performance made an apparent call for peace by showing embracing dancers wearing Israeli and Palestinian flags. It's not the first time that her controversial mid-show act has been linked to conspiracy theories.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on October 27, 2023, with a caption (translated from Croatian to English by Lead Stories staff) that read:
Everything is planned and announced in advance of the conflict
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Nov 20 07:12:53 2023 UTC)
Flag controversy
The 2019 Eurovision Song Contest took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, May 14-18, 2019, after Israeli singer Netta won the 2018 competition.
Eurovision describes itself as "a long running non-political, entertainment event which is designed to bring audiences and countries together." However, staging the show in Israel proved to be highly contentious due to the historic political disputes and armed fighting between Israel and the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Four days before the event took place, The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel called on Madonna and "all participants" to withdraw from the competition. In response to the calls for her to boycott the event Madonna told the news agency Reuters:
I'll never stop playing music to suit someone's political agenda nor will I stop speaking out against violations of human rights wherever in the world they may be ... I hope and pray that we will soon break free from this terrible cycle of destruction and create a new path towards peace.
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Mon Nov 20 13:40:12 2023 UTC)
The pop icon went ahead with her controversial performance in which a male dancer wearing an Israeli flag linked arms with a female dancer wearing a Palestinian flag.
The inclusion of the flags was seen as bringing politics into the self-styled "non-political" event. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which runs the annual event, said:
This element of the performance was not cleared with the EBU and the Host Broadcaster, KAN. The Eurovision Song Contest is a non-political event and Madonna had been made aware of this.
COVID conspiracy
Madonna's Eurovision appearance also spurred another conspiracy theory: that she predicted COVID-19 before the pandemic spread during the song "future."
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Mon Nov 20 13:42:20 2023 UTC)
Social media users said Madonna was wearing a crown, which, translated to Latin, is corona. In addition, people pointed to the fully masked backing dancers who performed next to the singer. They also highlighted some of the lyrics to back up their claim: "the storm isn't in the air, it's inside of us ... not everyone is coming to the future."
