A star is born! No, this isn’t some promotion for the hit movie (though it is pretty good). Instead a long, long…LONG time ago a little show called HaKokhav HaBa L’Eurovizion began and after countless auditions, covers, eliminations, wildcard rounds, withdraws, more wildcard rounds and shiny blue arrows, Israel finally picked their entrant for Eurovision 2019!
Congratulations to Kobi Marimi. He will be heading off to Tel Aviv in May to try and continue Israel’s success story. Thankfully the city is close by so traveling should not be an issue. We may have to wait a bit before we get the song though. Initial reports say that three more shows might take place to determine the perfect song for the winner, but nothing is certain yet. So in light of an actual entry, here is a taste of what led Kobi to the the victory:
Wait, wait, HOW did he win?
An EXCELLENT question! Well the final had four contestants in total and in round one they were divided into two groups to duel it out for a spot in round two. Each of the contestants sang a cover of a song they had selected and the voting was done by the audience in the studio, the app voters at home and the five judges (Asaf Amdursky, Keren Peles, Shiri Maimon, Harel Skaat and Static & Ben-El Tavori acting as a single judge) who could each add 3% to the score if they liked the performance.
The result of the first duel was:
| Contestant | Score | Result |
| Ketreyah | 68% | Advanced |
| Shefita | 64% | Eliminated |
The result of the second duel was:
| Contestant | Score | Result |
| Maya Bouskilla | 54% | Eliminated |
| Kobi Marimi | 79% | Advanced |
Now it was time for the app voters to save one of the two duet losers. After some fancy glow-in-the-dark dancing and tense music, it was announced that Shefita was through to round two!
Here we go again!
If you are following all this so far and know at least basic math, you have by now realised that we have THREE contestants left. Each of them performed a different song and both the voters at home as well as the studio audience got to place their vote to decide 50% of the results. The other 50% came from the usual jury panel plus a few additional guest juries invited specially for the final round. And after a few guest performances (including one from Netta) the end scoreboard looked a little something like this:
| Contestant | Jury | Audience | Total |
| Kobi Marimi | 102 | 113 | 215 |
| Shefita | 90 | 70 | 160 |
| Ketreyah | 78 | 87 | 165 |
Congratulations to Kobi Marimi once more! Who was your favourite of the four finalists? Do you think Kobi might pull off a double victory for Israel? What animal will be featured in the song they pick for him? A capybara would be unique…
Give us your opinion in the comments below and on social media @ESCXTRA and be sure to like our Facebook page for the latest updates!
