Israel: KAN to hold a song selection with 16 songs in order to determine Eden's ESC 2021 entry

Sunday, 19 July 2020

• The Israeli national broadcaster, KAN, has revealed that it will be holding a national song selection with 16 entries in order to select Eden Alene's entry for Rotterdam next year. 

  The Broadcasting Corporation has issued a call for proposals to produce programs for the selection of the Israeli song for Eurovision 2021, which will be performed by Eden Alene in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. After the cancellation of Eurovision 2020 due to the spread of the corona virus, it was decided that Eden would represent Israel with a different song from the one selected for this year's competition, "Feker Libi", created by Dorn Medley and Idan Raichel.

   

  Song Selection format

  According to KAN's information the song selection will be based on a different formula than before, includng two stages in the process.

  First Phase 

  First, composers will be invited to submit their songs; Subsequently, a professional committee on behalf of the corporation will select 16 songs from them; Then the digital phase will follow as the 16 songs selected by the committee will be displayed on the corporation's digital platforms, on a dedicated website. Half of them will be disqualified and 8 songs will advance to the next stage while  4 will be chosen by the public and 4 will be chosen by the committee members.

  Second Phase

  The song selection moves into its TV stage, that will include three TV shows on the channel, each televised show will last about 52 minutes Two semi-finals will be broadcast, with 4 songs each . Note down that not necessarily Eden Alene will perform the songs in the semifinals! The songs in the semi-finals are mot likely to be performed "by the songwriters or by appropriate performers depending on the production decision". The final show will follow in which Eden Alene will perform the four songs, from which the winning song will be chosen.

  It has been further revealed that the process of selecting the song , recording the song in the recording studio and producing the video clip for the representative song must be completed 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 full in motion ESC 2020 entry: 

  News Source:Walla