EUROVISION WINNERS - WAS IT WORTH RETURNING? IZHAR COHEN

Israel took a surprise and easy win in the Eurovision song contest 1978 (no matter what Jordanian television think) with their sixth participation, with Izhar Cohen & The Alphabeta group and their groovy and catchy A-ba-ni-bi. (However that nearly didn't happen as in the national final there was a tie with Belev echad by Chedva Amrani & Pilpel Lavan. Hmmm, who knows if they had sent that one instead...?)

Six times 12 out of 19 possible, and 32 points lead on runner up Belgium. They also set the trend for the Israeli entries that continued well into the 1990's: lead singer and highly choreographed group with a catchy up tempo tune. Between 1978-1985 with six participation they scored two wins, two runner ups and 5th and 7th place. Not bad.

Incidently Izhar started this run and also ended it in 1985 when he returned with Olé, Olé! placing 5th. Again in white and white a vry energetic backing group. Today the participation is propably best remembered for the backing singer's vocals... :-)

He has tried to get to Eurovision also in 1982 with El ha'or (7th), in 1987 with his sister Vardina with Musika hi neshika la'netzach (5th) and finally in 1996 with Alon Jan and Alpa'im (10th) ) but has since late 1990's concentrated on jewellery desing and has a jewellery store in Tel Aviv these days.

This blogger has a little bit soft spot to this. The 1978 contest is the first one I remember clearly watching, loving and getting hooked to the contest. I loved A-ba-ni-bi (even if my parents thought it was nonsense) and come 1985, I loved Olé, olé! as well. Among many others.

Comments

Boris said…

His store is actually in Tel Aviv.

17:44

Ilkar Blogilkar said…

Thanks for the correction. Some sources said Haifa, some Tel Aviv when I was seearching info on him and forgot to double check on that. My bad .-)

11:17

ESC 2016 WISH LIST: MARGARET FOR POLAND

Małgorzata Jamroży aka Margaret has also been tipped for Eurovision and apparently she did turn it down but she'd be perfect. She's got a look and persona you can't unnotice nor forget, she's got hit songs, she has been voted or nominated for everything from Trendy artist to the Hope of the Year, Fashion Icon and Glamour Woman of the year besides the usual best video, song, album, debut..... Oh she's also a fashion designer! She's very clever with social medias and would surely use it to her advantage if selected for Stockholm 2016. Her debut album is titled Add the blonde , do we need to say more? Except it includes mostly Swedish written pop tunes like Tell me how are ya , Wasted , Start a fire and Heartbeat . And of course her debut single and internationally noticed Thank you very much that you can enjoy below with all its anti-textil feel. I think she's Eurovision perfection, she's cheeky and fun, can we have her?

SONGS OF THE YEAR 2015: #5 KRISTA SIEGFRIDS - ON & OFF

Krista Siegfrids is delivering nice pop tunes one after another and this one is particularly catchy and soon you will be singing along..... Hopefully her Melodifestivalen entry will be equally good!

ESC 2016 BELARUS: NAKED WITH WOLVES?

Today's funniest Eurovision related story comes from Belarus. Some sources claim Ivan wants to perform on stage naked and with live wolf or wolves. It surely would be a first on Eurovision stage! We have seen some forgotten underwear over the years, and some cardbox animals though..... Is it time to take things a bit further? No, according the rules live animals are not allowed, and Eurovision being a family show nudity won't do either. (It seems to be ok to be half naked if you are a dancer though..... )

Regina Lund - naked and censored

Regina Lund's new video Jag är osynlig was censored by Youtube only minutes after it had been uploaded. In the video she was playing a female Jesus who gets crusified in the end. "I was shocked!" she says. "There's nothing more naked in it as in every church! It's ok to have naked man hanging on the wall but my nakedness is too much on internet? ". Oh well, no comment. She's prepairing a new album Dare Regina Lund and we of course remember her from her Melodifestivalen 2007 adventure with Rainbow star .

Russia recycles the video

Here is the video for Alexey's previous hit Бам Бам! and here is the video for his Eurovision 2011 entry Get you as Alex Sparrow as he likes to be called now abraod. Looks like he potreys the new rich Russia well.... The only problem is that he can't play the bad part convincingly not even a second. And did I say the song is crap? And of course as he is a Russian star he must have nude fotos of him flotaing around internet trying to be sexy and he fails there, too, big time. If you are not bad nor sexy you shouldn't push it. Maybe he should stick to singing jolly little numbers like the Kalinka rip off instead....

CAROLA'S BOOBS STEAL THE SHOW, SVT APOLOGIES

Update! Another thing got Swedes talking last night: Carola's boobs when she was giving away an award. This is not the first time her boombs cause headlines; her misfortunate adventures in the 80's in Japan wer explained with her boobs being too big for Japanese market. Ok.... Or was it the song ? Anyways, Carola apologies and says she thinks the dress is stylish and elegant (even her friends said so) and she's a mature woman in her 40s, not a 16-year-old girl and looks like one. The Swedish Oscars, Guldbagge awards were given out last night. Carola was there as a guest star to sing Barbra Streisand's The way we were when honoring the movie stars who passed away during 2012. However, the cameras were too much on Carola, not on the stars showed in photos in the background and that upset many viewers as that part of the show was to celebrate them, not Carola. Oh well... The producer of the show tells in Aftonbladet the part of the show was made the sam

TIM SCHOU AND HIS NAKED GRAVITY

Tim Schou has a pretty good solo career going since he left his friends in London. He's travelling the world and relesing songs and videos. The latest one is a great track and comes with a steamy video that kinda takes away from the song really. But who's complaining. If you got it, flaunt it. Enjoy the video below. This post coming after the other Dane, Rasmus Seebach as wishlist for Eurovision. To think about it, Tim would do nicely, too. Maybe he should give it another go?

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CZECH REPUBLIC: MARTINA BÁRTA PRESENTS MY TURN

Czech Republic's internally chosen Martina Bárta has released her entry My turn for the Eurovision as well today. Not sure if I managed to keep my attention level very high for very long when listening to it.... Shame.

MÅNS ZELMERLÖW GETS NAKED FOR THE GOOD CAUSE

Reigning Eurovision song contest champion and the host of the next contest in May 2016 in Stockholm Mäns Zelmerlöw bares it almost all in GT following some other Eurovision stars like Blue and Jedward ( see more here ) All for the good cause of course, prostate cancer - something this blogger can also relate having experienced it in my closest circle. Nothing to laugh about. The annual Naked issue of GT or Gay Times features also several other celebrity men out of their designer fashion and stage or sports outfits. I guess Christmas came early to some fans when they can unwrap their most wished gift already now.... Maybe. But it's not the first time he gets naked.... he did so when hosting the annual QX Gala some years ago. Who knows what he and Petra have in store for us in May?!

Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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