First auditions of Israel’s “The Next Star for Eurovision”

The first episode of “The Next Star For Eurovision” aired on the 29th of October on Israel’s new broadcaster –  IPBC (KAN).  The interactive music show has been a national selection for Israel ever since its second season.
The huge list of applicants has been narrowed down to a lucky 120 which made it on to the live tapings of the show.

The Next Star For Eurovision 2018

The 5th season of the show will be the 4th time Israel uses it as a method of selecting its Eurovision representative.
An eminent panel of judges/music professionals will give the viewers a helping hand when determining their favorite. Among them we have:

• Harel Skkat – Israel’s 2010 Eurovision representative.
• Assaf Amdursky – singer/songwriter/producer.
• Keren Peles – singer/songwriter.
• Static & Ben El Tavori – mainstream pop duo.

The audition phase of the show has the contestants singing behind a screen, trying to leave an impression on the judges. For a contestant to pass on to the next phase of the competition they will have to achieve a score of 70%.
Leaving a positive impression on a judge will help you score 10% of the vote. While the rest of the score is made up from the live studio audience. The viewers in the studio vote through an phone app and their score adds up to a total of 100%.
However, this year IPBC introduced an interesting new rule in which the hosts – Assi Azar and Rotem Sela can veto up to 5 rejected contestants by the judges and keep them in the competition.

First round of qualifiers

• Netta Barzilai 

This talented young lady certainly brings a very mainstream and quirky flare to the competition. Her unique rendition of Rihanna’s “Rude Boy” brought her a score of 82% from four judges.

• Mergui 

The 17 year old managed to leave a big impression on the judges scoring 88% out of four judges. This is also the highest scoring performance out of the auditions in the first episode. Mergui performed “How Far I’ll Go” from Disney’s Moana.

• Jaki Gaforov 

Jaki delivered one of the more memorable and unique performances and left an impression on four judges scoring 76% with his performance of “Feeling Good”.

• Adva Omer 

The 24 year old delivered one of the most emotional performances of the night. Adva managed to score 73% from three judges.

• Mor Karbasi

Mor has had a pretty successful career before applying for The Next Star For Eurovision. Her traditional vocal performance left the judges divided. She managed to impress two judges and scored 59%. Fortunately for Mor, the hosts applied their first save on her which makes her the last contestants to advance forward from this episode.
⇒You can check out the performances of the qualifiers here⇐

Israel at Eurovision

Israel has participated in Eurovision 40 times since their debut back in 1973 and have won 3 times. Since the introduction of semi finals, Israel has had varied success however they have managed to qualify the previous 3 years. In 2015, Nadav Guedj achieved 9th place in the final bringing the country their best result since 2005. This year, Imri flew the Israeli flag in Kyiv and achieved 23rd place in the final.

Will you be following The Next Star for Eurovision? Who managed to leave an impression out of the first five qualifiers? Do you think we have a winner among them?
You can let us know what you think in the comments section below and on all social media at @ESCXTRA.