ISRAEL

The Israeli final took place on March 8th at the Culture Hall in Rishon LeZion. After a bizarre mix of televoting (48%) jury vote (40%) and fan vote (12%) the winning song was “Ding Dong” sung, written and composed by the 1998 winner, Dana International.

The song is a mixed tempo dance song. The first verse has not got much of a beat and she sings it quite slowly and tenderly. The chorus is when the beat kicks in and the song speeds up slightly. The song is mostly in Hebrew but there are a few lines spoken in English. The chorus is very simple and the use of the phrase “Ding Dong” actually doesn’t fit into the meaning of the song at all.
The song itself is quite simple but also not very memorable. The switching of languages is sometimes unexpected. I feel that the song would do much better if it were more clear cut (i.e. all Hebrew or all English, or verses Hebrew – chorus English) I don’t know if she was suffering from nerves, but the start of the song sounded very shaky if not a little high. She did get better as the song progressed but it all feel a little tense and not blasting out fully.

Dana is wearing a quite simple white dress with feathers she is backed by 5 female backing sings all wearing different coloured dresses and the visual of this is actually quite strong. Dana connects well with the camera and the backing singers do just enough choreographed swaying and arm movements to be noticeable but not distracting.

So, ANOTHER former contestant joins this year’s contest, but can she make is 2 wins?
With this song, I very, very, very much doubt it.
I even doubt it is a contender for the final…


SINGER – Dana International
SONG – Ding Dong
MUSIC – Dana International
WORDS – Dana International