Last Tuesday, Israel selected their entrant for Eurovision 2020. Eden Alene, somewhat of an underdog in HaKokhav Haba L’Eurovizion 2020, won the national selection earlier this month. Rather than have her entry internally-selected, a special selection show will be hosted next month to select her entry. Among the submissions are some well-known songwriters and composers, with previous Eurovision successes…
On March 3rd, Israel will select their entry via “The Next Song to Eurovision”, where Eden Alene will present four prospective entries.
Eurovision 2019 host Lucy Ayoub will be the host of the song selection, alongside an unannounced co-presenter. Voting will be comprised of a televote, professional jury vote and some to-be-announced in-studio judges:
- 40% audience/televote
- 50% professional jury
- 10% in-studio judges
The call for songs opened on closed on February 11th. According to Euromix, top Israeli songwriters submitted songs for Eden, including:
- Idan Reichel and Doron Medalie – Doron Medalie composed the Israeli entries for Eurovision in both 2015 and 2018, with the latter winning the contest.
- Stav Beger & Nathan Goshen – Stav wrote and composed “Toy”, Israel’s winning 2018 entry.
- Dolev Ram and Penn Hazut – Writers and producers of Imri’s “I’m Alive” (Israel 2017)
- Keren Peles – HaKokhav HaBa L’eurovision judge
- Dana Lapidot – Former HaKokhav HaBa L’Eurovizion contestant
- Inbar Weizman – Co-writer of Kobi Marimi’s “Home” (Israel 2019)
Today, a jury met to shortlist the submissions to four. We anticipate that the selected entries will be released closer to the date of the show.
Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest
Israel has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 41 times since making its debut in 1973. The country has won the contest four times (1978, 1979, 1998, 2018), and has hosted the contest three times (1979, 1999 and 2019).
Since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Israel has failed to reach the final six times. In 2005, Shiri Maimon gave the country its tenth top five result with “HaSheket SheNish’ar”, finishing fourth. Having failed to qualify for the final for four consecutive years (2011–2014), Israel reached the final with Nadav Guedj’s “Golden Boy” in 2015. Since Nadav’s ninth-place finish, Israel has qualified for every Grand Final.
Last year, Netta brought Israel it’s fourth victory, 20 years after its previous win. Her song won the televote and placed 3rd in the jury vote, amassing 529 points. The 2019 edition of the contest was hosted in Tel Aviv. Performing on home soil, Kobi Marimi’s “Home” didn’t quite reach the heights of its predecessor, placing 21st with 35 points.
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