Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  After the very long selection process ( read more here ) known as Hakovhav haba or Next Star Eurovision 19-year-old Eden Alene came out victorious unlike in X Factor two years ago. Her parents came to Israel from Ethiopia.There should be another final to choose the entry where she will sing a number of song next month.

Israel's search for the Next Star  הַכּוֹכָב הַבָּא  Eurovision has been dragging on since November and we've had already 33 broadcasts before we have the eight semi-finalists. And there's more to come: two semi-finals with four acts each, two of them making the final. The final four will perform in duels until one is left. This time apparently they will also perform the song for Eurovision as well. In the final on March 3 there will be a Sanremoesque three way voting; professional jury (65%), the judging panel (5%) and televote (30%). Eden Alene FINALIST - winner Ella Lee Lahav FINALIST - 2nd Gaya Shaki FINALIST - 4th Lali Kolishkin Moran Aharoni Ohad Shragai Orr Amrami.Brockmann FINALIST - 3rd Raviv Kaner How did we get this far? Check out a short summery after the jump...

Israel kicked off its search for the next Eurovision star to represent the nation in Rotterdam 2020 Eurovision with HaKokhav Haba. The artists are once again judged by the five jurors and the audience. In the first round they either qualify for the bootcamp or be eliminated.  You can watch the performances here  Below is the charft of their performances with % of the first round and after that the result of the eventual bootcamp (directly to top 20 or second chance and thereafter top 20 or eliminated) Episode 1 (November 20) Orr Amrami-Brokman (97%) FINAL TOP 20 Ella-Li Lahav (96%) FINAL TOP 20 Ravid Kaner (93%) FINAL TOP 20 Ohad Shragai (88%) -> 2nd chance -> FINAL TOP 20 Daniel Ben  Efrayim (72%) eliminated Ilor Bar (67%) Noa Maman (60%) Episode 2 (November 23)   Lali Kolishkin (92%) FINAL TOP 20 Eden Alene (88%) FINAL TOP 20 Yanai Ben Hamo (88%) eliminated Dana Lapidot (88%) FINAL TOP 20 Avihu Pinhosov's Rhyt...

Kobi Marimi (27), one of those you made the biggest impact with their first audition back in November has emerged as the winner of Hakovhav haba Eurovision 2019 after almost 40 episodes with ups and downs . We don't know his song yet but he surely has the voice and personality. This blogger was blown away already with his first audition with Sweet dreams , and his covers of Mad world , Fuego and Always are all fabulous. His voice and style maybe isn't everyone's cup of tea, but hopefully he is allowed to keep it and take the risk instead of going for too safe in Tel Aviv. His entry will be published later and yes, there might be additional shows aired to choose it. Maybe. 

The Israeli selection for the artist in home soil next May started back in November and after 20 episodes 65 artists made it out of over 100 for the next step. We have now the 20 finalists chosen among them by the judges in further auditions. After watching through their videos I was most impressed (in no particular order) by Naama, Ofri, Nitay, Tay and Kobi, but we can't forget Avraham who would have a great backstory turning from Orthodox Jew to a married gay man and coming from Brazil, or Maya Buskila who has been tipped many times for Eurovision since 2004 but if her voice is your cup of tea, is another matter. Then we have Netta's backing singer Danielle and Rotem Shefi's character act Shefita, and a non-profit organization's band with disabled people... Let's see how this develops, ingredients are there, they only need the right song and perfermer mixed up well and who knows... Avraham De Carvalho  (27)    Danielle Mazuz  (27) Kobi Marimi (27) ...

  Netta Barzilai has won the HakokHav Haba l'Eurovizion and flies to Lisbon for Israel becoming the third Eurovision act confirmed today. Tonight she sung covers like all the other finalists, and the search for a song that fits her starts full time.  The first round was done in the usual selection way and sadly saw the exit of Chen Aharoni who only scored 72%, but Netta was close with 74%! as losers of their duels. The judges sent Chen home..... The clear winner was Mergui with 90% (vs. Chen) and Riki second with 81%. (vs. Netta) The top-3 continued the race singing a couple of songs each before the jury voted, and then finally the televotes. Netta won jury vote but Mergui beat her in the televotes barely and here are the final results: 1. Netta Barzilai (jury 104 + televote 106) 210 2. Jonathan Mergui (88 + 117) 205 3. Riki Ben Ari (78 + 47) 125 4. Chen Aharoni - PS. Didn't she try already last year or do I remember wrong? Or some other ...

  The journey started in October 2017 and 31 shows later we have only the four finalist left. Among them Chen Aharoni from the first episode, who should be the one anyways. Maybe they should have selected him internally and get over with it? Or who knows? Maybe we will have a surprise winner after all...?  Here they are: Chen Aharoni Netta Barzilai Riki Ben Ari Jonathan Mergui The open submission for the song has been opened, and once the winner is out they will search a suitable song for him/her among those and it will be made public in due time.....

  The Israel marathon selection HaKochav Haba Le’eyrovizion 2018 has been going on for 19 episodes already, dropping the artists from original 5000 wnnabes first to 120 and 70 were left for the next round, and now they have been cut to 20 in further jury auditions, meaning some names who did very well in the first round are out like Zohar Razier who scored 97%, Eden Newman Hyatt (94%), Tslil Goldman and Michael Korbin (88% both). On the other hand artists that barely made it to the next step qualifier for this last phase, so everything can happen between one good or bad audition round. Chen Aharoni is the pre-contest favorite and the biggest name in the list. Let's see if he make it in the end. But there's also quite a few singers with oriental vibe so let's see if Israel joins in with the more ethnic and original sound? Further televised auditions will drop the rest and in the end we have the Israeli Eurovision entrant for Lisbon 2018 Eurovision song contest ...

Pictured is Israel's national flower cyclamen Israel used once again the talent show HaKokhav Haba l'Eurovizion to find the artist and then a committee searched for the suitable song for the winner. The selection process started January 2, 2017 and mid February we had the final four left. In the final Imri was still second to Diana Golbi in the first round but surpassed her in the last round. His song I feel alive was then released in March. It's written by Dolev Ram and Penn Hazut. Imri Ziv (25) is no stranger to Eurovision stage as he has been the Israeli backing singer/dancer in the last two editions. He's of Romanian-Ukrainian origin and no stranger to talent shows either, having reached the battle stages in The Voice of Israel in 2012. He has also dubbed Trolls in Hebrew. This is one of those songs that could be so much more. Upbeat dance song with inspirational lyrics, with ethnic vibe. But when the chorus comes it's a bit of an anticlimax ...

I mri Ziv has beaten superfavorite Diana Golbi in the national final tonight. As the singers did covers tonight in the last round his emotional Because of you got better of Diana's Purple rain. He watched her with admiration all through the performance and seemed rather shocked she actually didn't manage to better his 75%.... Diana on the other hand looked miserable on stage when she realized what happened.... Julieta came 3rd and Beatbox Element 4th. Imri Ziv – Halo (Beyonce) – 78% & 4 Yes’ – Superfinalist Beatbox Element – Hey Mama (David Guetta) – 49% & 2 Yes’ VS. Julietta – My Number One (Helena Paparizou) – 53% & 3 No’s – Saved Diana Golbi – Euphoria (Loreen) – 85% & 4 Yes’ – Superfinalist Super Final: Julietta – Shikorim me’ahava (Eden Ben-Zaken) – 58% & 4 Yes’ Imri Ziv – Because of you (Kelly Clarkson) -74% & 4 Yes’ – 1st Diana Golbi – Purple rain (Prince) – 66% Imri is no stranger to Eurovision having been backing si...

Tonight it's Israel's turn t choose their entrant for the Eurovision song contets 2017 in Kyiv. Four acts remain in the running, but their songs have not been made known or available as yet so tonight's going to be full of surprises.  Diana Golbi remains the one to beat but Eurovision backing veteran Imri Ziv , national final veteran Julieta and accapella group Beatbox Element will surely try their best to beat her. After all it all depends on the songs they have got for tonight to present..... Watch here from 20.00 CET