ISRAEL

The Israeli entry was released on March 9th during a special television show. The entrant was selected back in February through the Rising Star programme. There were 9 shows to whittle the contestants down to the final 4. The winner was chosen through a combination of mobile phone app and "expert" jury votes. The winning singer was Imri Ziv and his internally selected song is called “I feel alive”

The video has a very touristy-summer feel as most of the film is set at the beach. The video also looks back on Imri’s journey through the selection competition and his previous brushes with Eurovision (Imri was a backing singer in the 2015 and 2016 editions) There are lots of party and dancing scenes which emphasise the beat of the song. In parts, Imri is joined by a couple of male dancers where they undertake some simplistic choreography although there is also some random breakdancing.

The song is a modern dance pop number with radio friendly and ethic edge. As many of these songs start out nowadays then instrumentation is minimal at the star then grows throughout the song. The verses are straightforward and are actually very strong. This is then followed by what can only be described as an overlong ‘pre-chorus’ which then becomes the true chorus with is ‘I feel alive’ repeated over and over again. During the second repetition of the chorus, the track is joined by something akin to an Arghul (similar in tone to a clarinet) which repeats a lively catchy ear worm which reminds you a little bit that this is an Israeli song. After this he repeats the chorus but with a stripped back backing track before going back into full force for the end. As the release was through pre-recorded means, it is hard to judge how, or if, Imri can vocally produce this live.

The song starts off on a good footing and pricks your ears up right away but for me, it all unravels towards the chorus. It takes way too long for the chorus to unfurl and when you get there it is the same line repeated over again. For such effort in the build-up, it totally misses the mark. Although the instrumentation later in the song redeems the track slightly you can’t help but fee like this had such promise but never quite reaches its peak.

In terms of qualification, it is still too early to judge as most of semi 2 is still unknown that said, it is a very diverse and contains a wide variety of acts and music styles. I can imagine that with a strong visual show this should qualify but not troubling the left hard side of the scoreboard. That said I am still troubled by how this has left me disappointed and if other viewers feel the same, they might not qualify at all.

ARTIST - Imri Ziv

SONG - I feel alive

MUSIC - Dolev Ram, Penn Hazut

LYRICS - Dolev Ram, Penn Hazut