Israel: KAN reveals the three songs to compete in the ESC 2021 national song selection

Israel: KAN reveals the three songs to compete in the ESC 2021 national song selection
Sunday, 03 January 2021

  • The Israeli national broadcaster, KAN, has revealed the three songs that will compete in the national final to select Eden Alene's entry for Eurovision 2021.

    Confirming the recent media reports  on the three songs that eventually made it to the final stage of the Israeli song selection for Eurovision 2021, KAN revealed the three potential ESC entries one of which will become Eden Alene's performing song in Rotterdam next May. 

    The three songs out of nine candidate entries initially that made it to the final stage and will compete in the national final 'Our Song For Eurovision' are: 

     All three songs will go through a new online voting with the public selecting the Eurovision 2021 entry. The winning song will be announced in a special broadcast, "Our Eurovision Song," which will air in late January or early February, revealing the creators of the three songs, music videos and the public's' choice  for Eurovision 2021.

     

    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.

    Last 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: 

    Source: KAN