As I am typing, I am sat on a very posh Virgin Atlantic flight from London Heathrow to Tel Aviv. I’m joined on my flight by several of this year’s Eurovision 2022 stars. Those I’ve spotted so far include Australia’s Sheldon Riley, Austria’s LUM!X and Pia Maria, Croatia’s Mia Dimšić, Czech Republic’s We Are Domi, Estonia’s Stefan, Germany’s Malik Harris, Ireland’s Brooke, Latvia’s Citi Zēni, Malta’s Emma Muscat and North Macedonia’s Andrea who are making the next stop on their promotional tours along after Sunday’s London Eurovision Party.
They will join 14 more artists in this year’s Israel Calling 2022 event: Albania’s Ronela Hajati, Armenia’s Rosa Linn, Azerbaijan’s Nadir Rustamli, Bulgaria’s Intelligent Music Project, France’s Alvan & Ahez, Georgia’s Circus Mircus, Israel’s Michael Ben David, Lithuania’s Monika Liu, Moldova’s Zdob şi Zdub & Fraţii Advahov, Montenegro’s Vladana, Poland’s Ochman, Romania’s WRS, Serbia’s Konstrakta and Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra.
Join ESCXTRA for Israel Calling 2022
In the coming days, ESCXTRA will join these 24 Eurovision 2022 stars in a tour of Tel Aviv, a tour of Jerusalem and the Israel Calling arena concert live from Tel Aviv on Thursday evening. We wish to thank the organisers of Israel Calling 2022 for providing us with the incredible opportunity to cover this event.
Each day, we will provide you a diary of the day’s exciting events here on ESCXTRA.com as well as bring you interviews and behind-the-scenes fun on our Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and more! Make sure you are following us @ESCXTRA on each social media platform so you don’t miss out.
Ryan’s journey to Tel Aviv
This will be my second time in Israel and also my second time in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem after visiting in 2019 for the main Eurovision event. I began today’s journey taking the train down from the East Midlands to London and then hopping on the London Underground for an hour to take me to Heathrow Airport to the west of the UK’s capital city. Heading through security checks, I met the wonderful Brooke and her team from Ireland.
After a lengthy wait to get into Wagamama in which I befriended a lovely girl who was headed to see her family in Adelaide, I found myself sat opposite Pia Maria from Austria in the departures area! Then it was time to head to the gate where I found We Are Domi waiting for the same information. We had a wonderful chat whilst waiting for the gate announcement (which was 20 minutes late) and then headed to the gate where several of our Eurovision 2022 artists reunited ready for our flight.
Dominik’s journey to Tel Aviv
I will be joined at Israel Calling by my colleague Dominik who arrived in Tel Aviv way before myself and the majority of the artists! Here’s a quick overview of his journey to Tel Aviv in Dominik’s words:
I went to Berlin the day before I travelled to Tel Aviv as I had a very early flight on the Monday morning. After waking up at 3am (!) I went to the new Berlin airport that only opened in 2021, ten years later than planned! Let me tell you, it was pure chaos. The weather in Berlin was cold and rainy so there was no time to waste in getting myself to Tel Aviv. After a four-hour flight, I was hit with Tel Aviv’s 25 degree sunshine. I got picked up by the amazing Israel Calling team at the airport after completing security checks and a COVID-19 test. As I have to isolate until I receive my negative test result, I spent the afternoon catching up on sleep and getting ready for the exciting events coming up this week!
We can’t wait to get Israel Calling 2022 underway tomorrow afternoon with a tour of Tel Aviv. Stay tuned to ESCXTRA.com and @ESCXTRA on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok for all the content you need!
