Welcome to The Xtra Files, our series which will give you an insight into what the team at ESCXTRA think of your favourite entries into this year’s contest! Today, we review Israel.
Now that all the songs have been released, we are able to review each and every one of them. Our honest and brutal reviews will keep you entertained until the rehearsals start on 30 April! We will also each give a score out of 10 for every entry, and create an ESCXTRA leaderboard of the entries!
Today we have reviews of the Israeli entry, ‘Toy’ by Netta, from Dominik, Rodrigo, Nathan, Luke, Sami and Tom. Let’s get started!
The Reviews
Dominik
Everytime I listen to Israel my inner me is screaming “YAS QUEEEEEEN”! Israel really always delivers. This year they not just snatch wigs, they also wanna catch this trophy! Israel deserved to win and hands down, this is the perfect winner. Perfect artist, amazing song and everything Netta is doing is so creative! I love this!
Rodrigo
When this came out and all media starting going crazy about it, and my entire fb feed was flooded by Israel is winning comments I rolled my eyes and thought, whatever, this is in the bag for Sweden. Then I listened to “Toy” and understood the frenzy. This is one of the most contemporary, radio friendly, hit potential entries that the contest has produced in ages. Netta is remarkably talented, the song is perfectly written, they lyrics are clever to the point of appearing weird at times, and the overall package works perfectly. If staged correctly, this is undoubtedly one of the strong horses of this year’s contest.
Nathan
This is one of my favourite entries this year. I realise that Toy isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but for me it’s quirkiness and musicality really give it something special, especially compared with a lot of the offerings in the 2018 contest. For a lot of people, the key question is “will this win?”. As it stands, I am not sure that it will top the leaderboard in the big Saturday night show, but it certainly might come close to it.
Luke
So I usually quietly sing to myself / torture my coworkers as I’m walking around my workplace. You can’t even imagine the strange looks I got when I started singing “He’s a PUKAKUKAKAUAAKAKUK boy”. This is a work of absolute genius!
Sami
“Toy” is crazy, in a good way. It’s so much fun but has an important message too. I also really hope Netta gets to use her looper as it would be something different again. I am not sure if Israel is winning this year, but I am pretty sure this will become even bigger hit after the contest.
Tom
This does have all the qualities of a Eurovision favourite. It’s bold, in your face and wants you to sit up and listen. YouTube has proven already it can go viral and we could well see that in the televote. But like with Italy 2017 and Russia 2016 this contest hasn’t been won yet. We’ll have to wait and see!
Scores
| Dominik | 10 | Nick | 8 | Tim | 10 |
| Hlynur | 9 | Riccardo | 1 | Tom | 9 |
| Lisa | 10 | Rigmo | 10 | Vincent | 8 |
| Luke | 10 | Rodrigo | 10 | Wiv | 8 |
| Matt | 8.5 | Ryan | 9.5 | Yassia | 6 |
| Miki | 8 | Sami | 9 | ||
| Nathan | 9 | Simon | 9 |
Therefore, the average score for Israel is 8.52.
Leaderboard
An impressive amount of gold medals take Israel and Netta all the way to 1st place, topping our leaderboard with an impressive score of 8.52.
- Israel – 8.52
- Finland – 7.66
- Bulgaria – 7.63
- France – 7.50
- Sweden – 7.21
- Poland – 7.08
- Germany – 6.95
- Ukraine – 6.92
- Austria – 6.79
- Australia – 6.76
- Denmark – 6.55
- Lithuania – 6.50
- Italy – 6.39
- Azerbaijan – 6.05
- Portugal – 6.05
- Estonia – 5.86
- Latvia – 5.61
- Albania – 5.50
- Serbia – 5.05
- Belarus – 4.97
- Moldova – 4.92
- Romania – 4.73
- Montenegro – 4.71
- Hungary – 4.65
- Armenia – 4.29
- Georgia – 4.18
- Iceland – 4.18
- San Marino – 4.03
Tomorrow, it will be the turn of Netherlands to be reviewed.
Do you agree with our reviews of Israel? What are your thoughts on Toy?
Let us know in the comments below and on social media @ESCXTRA!
