Israel: 220 songs for Eden Alene in Eurovision 2021

Israel: 220 songs for Eden Alene in Eurovision 2021
Friday, 16 October 2020

  • The Israeli broadcaster, KAN, has confirmed to have received about 220 songs for the nation's Eurovision 2021 hopeful, Eden Alene. 

    Eden should feel satisfied as the submitted entries for the national song selection that will determine her Eurovision 2021 entry have reached circa 220! Recall that last year about 250 songs were submitted, while for Kobi Marimi about 200 songs were submitted and a year before for Neta Barzilai about 130 songs were sent in.

    KAN has confirmed to the EuroMix website that about 220 songs were submitted for the Israel hopeful . A professional committee is expected to convene as early as next week to listen to the songs and select from them a limited number of songs, probably 16 songs, which the broadcaster will put to the listeners' vote through its official website.

    A set of 8 songs will advance to the next phase, with the public vote determining the 4 of them and the professional jury the rest 4. Two semi finals will follow with four songs competing in each semi final round and only the two entries from each one qualifying to the final show. All song during the semi finals will be performed either by the creators themselves or another artist. Eden Alene will perform on stage only the final four songs. 

     

    At this point the broadcaster is working on the list of songs submitted to make sure they all meet the rules presented to the creators.The final show of the song selection is expected to take place by mid February. 

     

    Israel in Eurovision 

    Israel has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 42 times since making its debut in 1973. Israel’s first appearance at the contest in 1973 was successful, with Ilanit finishing fourth. Israel has achieved 4  victories, in 1978 and 1979, with first two wins for Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta, with the song “A-Ba-Ni-Bi” and Gali Atari and Milk and Honey, with “Hallelujah” .

    Its third victory came in 1998, with Dana International and “Diva”  and its fourth in ESC 2018 with Netta’s song Toy. The country’s best results apart from  its victories  were the second-place finishes for Avi Toledano in 1982 and Ofra Haza in 1983. Former winner Izhar Cohen returned to place fifth in 1985. Duo Datz finished third in 1991, before Israel achieved . Eden then finished fifth in 1999. Israel has hosted the contest three times, in 1979 and 1999, both in Jerusalem and in 2019 in Tel Aviv. 

    After the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Israel has failed to reach the final six times. In 2014, the country failed to qualify for the fourth consecutive year, when Mei Feingold finished 14th (out of 15) in the second semi final, despite being one of the favorites to qualify. In 2015, Israel reached the final for the first time in five years, with Nadav Guedj finishing ninth. The only Israeli entrant to achieve a better result in the 21st century before their 2018 win was Shiri Maimon in 2005, who gave the country its tenth top five result in the contest, finishing fourth

    In 2019 Kobi Marimi winner of the Rising Star, rerpesented Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest on home soil  with his entry Home.

    This year Eden Alene  won the talent show “The next Star” and the ticket to Rotterdam where she was going to perform the nationally selected song Feker Libi. Due to the covid-19 pandemic the contest was cancelled interrupting Eden's Eurovision journey. However Eden must find a new song for next year’s competition after EBU’s decision to not allow to the Eurovision 2020 entries to compete in the 2021 edition of the contest .

    That's remember Eden's uptempo energetic NF performance of her ESC 2020 entry: