248 songs in total were submitted to Israeli national broadcaster KAN for the Israeli national final, to be held on March 3rd. A special committee has narrowed them down to 4, which all will be performed by Eden Alene in order to find the Israeli entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020.
As previously mentioned, top Israeli songwriters submitted songs for Eden Alene, Israeli representative for Eurovision Song Contest 2020 that won the talent show “Rising Star”.
A special committee has now narrowed down the 248 potential entries submitted, down to only 4.
More about the songwriters
Doron Medalie and Stav Berger, the duo behind Israel’s winning entry from Eurovision Song Contest 2018 “Toy” is back on the race again this year.
Doron Medalie has also been the composer of previous Israeli entries such as “Golden Boy” (2015) by Nadav ending up in 9th place and “Made of Stars” (2016) by Hovi Star and 14th place in the final.
Doron Medalie is collaborating this time with Idan Reichel the two are responsible for one of the standout songs of the year, while Beger collaborates this time with Nathan Goshen.
It is worth to mention that Idan Raichel is considered as one of the most successful musical artists of Israel and one of the most well known Israeli artists abroad. Idan Raichel is distinctive for its fusion of electronics, traditional Hebrew texts, Arab and Ethiopian music. This is the first time that a song (partly) in Amharic will be competing to represent Israel in Eurovision Song Contest.
The competing songs
Bellow are the 4 chosen songs for the competition:
1. “Roots”
Writers: Natan Goshen and Stav Beger
2. “Feker libi” / Amharic: “My heart’s beloved”
Writers: Doron Medalie and Idan Raichel
3. “Savior in the Sound”
Writers: Oren Emanuel, Talia Londoner and Uri Avni
4. Rak ata / Hebrew: “Only you”, Amharic
Writers: Gal Joe Cohen, Eyal Ishay, Zlil Kalifi, Eran Kashi.
Israeli national final
The song will be selected in a special broadcast that will be broadcasted on March 3rd. The Judging Committee consists of six judges: representatives of the corporation Roy Dalmadigo, Smadar Shaffer, Tal Argman, Tali Katz and Yuval Ganor, and representatives of Teddy Productions Tamira Jordan and Sivan Young.
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
Listen bellow to one of the most successful songs composed by Idan Raichel and performed by Ethiopian-Israeli singer Cabra Casay
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