ISRAEL 2023

The Israeli song was revealed on March 8th via the premiere of the official music video on youtube. Way ack in July  KAN, the Israeli broadcaster, announced that Noa Kirel had been internally selected as their representative. Her song is called "Unicorn".

Noa Kirel is from Ra'anana, Israel, and has two older brothers. In 2015 she performed her first song on YouTube named "Medabrim?". Her second release on line called "Killer" caused a stir due to the provocative video clip (she would have been 13). In 2016, she won the award "Singer of the Year" at the Israeli Kids' Choice Awards. In 2017, Kirel began hosting the "Lipstar" musical program on kidZ, and featured in the movie "Nearly Famous". In 2018 she became cone of the judges on Israel's Got Talent albeit still being a teenager. All in all she has scored four number 1 songs in Israel and numerous film, tv and presenting roles.

The song begins with a classical intro before petering out to a very low key backing track and Noa's voice takes centre stage. The song then progresses to the chorus and becomes quite stark and serious and dramatic which is a bit weird because the words coming out of her mouth really aren't! Verse two comes in and goes back to a more poppier bassline and before going into the chorus we have the repetitive 'phenomenal' refrain. The chorus here is shorter but the full force of beat and the strings fits in better than the first time round. There is another refrain before the song disintegrates once more, this time into shouts about dancing, a long instrumental and a final few chants of the name of the song.

This song, and its video, seems to be a collection of bits. These bits don't 100% flow into each other but sometimes this creates unusual balances and makes you more intrigued. On the whole the song stops and starts and fails to get going. These stops and starts will be interesting to see live as many of these will sound different and have a different energy. If she can do all of this live it is going to sound amazing. In addition the last half a minute being an effective dance break will be interesting live. Also she is rather chameleon-like in her appearance and I think there are a couple of looks she could use live. I would love to see her wearing something athletic, like the dance gear she wears at the end. I suspect there may be some kind of costuming reveal from one thing to another, possibly for the dance break at the end. Choosing a part for the vote recap will also be an interesting decision because different people will like/remember different parts of the song and not all of it can fit in a 20 second recap.

If I had any critque for the potential show it would be that Noa needs to be a little more positive facially. During the video she seems a little emotionless and almost little bit standoffish. Maybe being in front  off a live audience may make her personality shine a bit more I would imagine Noa being right on target for getting the younger generation vote but girls in particular would want something more engaging, fun, personal and relatable. I also think that for older viewers this attitude also might come across negatively. For such a modern song to appeal outside its bracket she will need to butter the public at home up. She may also need to rethink the 'hand to the head' gesture as it might lead to something a little more... vulgar... If she can sing and dance at the same time she will be showing off some epic skills, it would be a shame for a perceived aloofness to cost her votes

ARTIST - Noa Kirel

SONG - Unicorn

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Noa Kirel, Doron Medali, May Sfadia, Yinon Yahel

ISRAEL 2022

The Israeli Final was held on February 5th at the at the Menora Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv, hosted by Liron Weizman. The Israeli broadcaster used the series of the X-Factor to choose their winner and competing song. The winner was chosen via a series of duals then the top 3 performed their potential ESC entries where it was judged using a combination of  jury, the X-Factor judges (25% each) &  a combination of televoting and app voting (50%). The winner was Michael Ben-David with the song "I.M"

Michael Ben David is 26 and comes from just outside previous Eurovision host city Tel Aviv. After completing his military service, Michael came into modelling and the performing arts. His style throughout the x-Factor show was rather varied and has sung everything from musical theatre numbers to club classics to Israeli ballads. This song in particular leans firmly on his LGBTQ identity and his love of dance.

First we have a very sassy introduction before going into the pulsating banger bassline The first verse which is extremely long, in fact it sounds more like 2 verses with parts of the chorus shoved together. It then slows down and builds up again during the pre-chorus, then into a short instrumental an then into the chorus. The second verse starts up and is much shorter and has a different rhythm and emphasis than before, with almost too many words and syllables to fit into the actual song. At just before the 2 minute mark there is a Middle Easter section with typical instrumentation and dance moves. We conclude with a pre-chorus, chorus and a kind of outro which links part for the introduction and chorus together to a finish.

This song is very much about the performance and the performance is very in your face. The changing backdrop with the letters I.M on in different ways emphasises the name of the song (I.M being a stylised way of saying "I am") The use of a runway is interesting but I don't think it is utilised well; the dancers getting off and on it is cumbersome and this sometimes detracts from the real action. Overall the kind of 'drag race lop sync' feel is not a bad one as this is a franchise seen all over the world. The nods to ball culture and voguing makes is easy to remember and make connection to. Personally there are too many 'bits'  - the two verses are totally different and the pre-chorus goes on a bit - although this is somewhat saved by the catchy and repetitive use of the title throughout. It's very memorable, but not always for positive reasons although I feel this has a big enough personality and enough identity to make its way into the final

ARTIST - Michael Ben David

SONG - I.M

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Chen Aharoni, Lidor Saadia, Assi Tal

ISRAEL 2021

The Israeli song was revealed on January 25th, via a special show (HaShir Shelanu L'Eurovizion) hosted by Lucy Ayoub. Before the final there was a semi-final where the long list of 9 was whittled down to a final of 3. The winner was chosen by online & app voting which started on January 19th. Eden Alene, who was to be the Israeli representative in 2020, will sing the song "Set me free".

The show, unfortunately was not a 'live' show and the winning song was only seen as a video clip so this is what I will be using to review. Eden Alene is dressed in white and has some very distinctive make up and hair styling. She certainly looks very dynamic and this is made more interesting by the dancers around her dressed mostly in back with picture frames of lights surrounding their head and shoulders. This framing is every eye catching and keeps Eden Alene firmly in the centre of attention

The song starts with a brief intro then straight into a shortened version of the chorus, albeit a rather low key version. This is always a clever tactic as it gets this key part of the song firmly locked in your hear within seconds. The backing track has a very strong beat and has a great use of sythy-strings to create moments between the singing. The verses are much more spiky and show Eden's personality much more than the chorus. Here, the pace slows ever so slightly although this change of style and tempo shows the diverse range she has to her voice. There is then a rather prolonged post-chorus which also contains lines in Hebrew. During the second verse the backing track changes slightly to a slightly more dancehall rhythm which really perks your ears up. After a third verse the very last chorus starts with a key change - jut in case you forgot it's a Eurovision song - then finishes with a final "Just set me free".

The song itself has a great contemporary feel and would not feel out of place on many radio stations around the world. In addition, most Eurovision fans are pretty confident that Eden Alene will perform the hell out of this physically and vocally although there are obviously numerous questions about potential staging ideas. After numerous listens, the song starts to feel more like a collection of bits that don't quite flow together. In particular I am puzzled at the prevalence of the 'Imma make it on my own" part which almost seems to overpower and overshadow the chorus, as well as take up a rather large part of the song's time limit. The ending also feels rather sudden.

On the face of it, this is a solid effort and something that very much fits into the modern scope of Eurovision. Instinctively one wants to compare this to "Feker Libi" and this new song really isn't at that level. Personally, I don't like the way it slows down for the chorus or how long the post-chorus goes on for. I feel like something with a a more constant pace would suit Eden's personality more as well as create more flow for the listener. There is time, however, to finalise the backing track as well as making the best possible stage show, although having seen how much effort has gone into the development fo the tracks and video, I don't think this will be the case.

ARTIST - Eden Alene
SONG - Set Me Free
WRITING CREDITS - Ron Carmi, Amit Mordechai,  Ido Netzer, Noam Zaltin

01/03/12 ISRAEL

Prior to the unveiling of the song, the band Izabo was internally selected by Israeli Television to represent them at Eurovision. Strangely, the song was premiered via the internet and not via a special TV show.

The song fluctuates between English verses and A chorus in Hebrewplus the singer’s English is not too bad, although the lyrics are a little bit weak. The song’s feel is very modern yet has a 60’s feel to the melody especially in the chorus. However it is far too busy. The synthesizer parts are too complicated and the tune is very complicated.  In addition it also finishes too abruptly for my liking.

The next day they played the song at the Zappa club which was also placed onto the internet. The band looks a little odd, with the greatest amount of respect they look a little older than what their style of music suggests. They will also (hopefully) look a bit different stylistically in Baku. They don’t sing too bad really and do deliver the song well. However I am worried that the song won’t be enough of a show as it really could do with more of a visual element to it.

The song for me is too odd and really not what I would consider to be a Eurovision song. Maybe it will grow on me in time, however the average Eurovision viewer who will only hear this once may well forget this too easily.

Below is the formal released version as well as the live version,

SONG - Time

ARTIST – Izabo

COMPOSERS – Ran Shem-Tov, Shiri Hadar

LANGUAGE – Hebrew and English

UPDATE 7

ISRAEL – Dana International has released a revamped version of her song “Ding Dong” The song is now a bit more modern sounding than previously and now includes many more electronic influences. I still don’t think this cuts it though.





RUSSIA – Alex Sparrow has revealed the promotional video for his song “Get you”. The video sees Alex taking on lots of different characters and shows him in lots of different situations – however he seems to be miming to a different song. Weird.





NORWAY – a revamped version of “Haba Haba” has surfaced. The backing track is different and the song sems to be sing in a slightly higher key than before. This still does not disguise the fact that singing is not this girl’s finest talent. If the rumours are to be believed, this is the track that will be sung to at Eurovision. In my opinion, it is not as good as the original.

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