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Israeli Eurovision entrant reportedly suffers homophobic attack by police in Moscow airport

By Fabio Crispim

Hovi Star, Israel’s 2016 Eurovision entrant has announced that he was attacked by police and passport control at Moscow airport.

The Metro reports that he was travelling to Russia to promote his ‘Made of Stars’ single that talks about equality.

During an interview with Maltese television, Star said, “Maybe people in Moscow have a rough time with people like me, maybe because I’m gay, maybe because I dress like this, maybe because I wear make-up, I don’t know.”

“But when I wanted to get into Moscow, I had problems with passport control. They told me I can’t go in, they looked at my passport, they ripped my passport,” he continues.

“It’s amazing this happened in the Eurovision bubble because my song Made of Stars it talks about equality it talks about how everybody is the same, everybody was born the same, everybody will die the same.”

Eventually, Star was allowed into Russia to perform at a Eurovision preview event. He explained how he had to go to the Israeli Consulate in Moscow to get a new passport before being able to continue his Eurovision promotion tour.

You can listen to Hovi Star’s ‘Made of Stars’ Eurovision entry below:

Earlier this week, Eurovision announced that Romania have been disqualified from the competition this year.

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