Today, the producers of Rising Star for Eurovision 2016 have announced that the grand final of the show will take place on the 3rd of March in Neveh Ilan studios. A few possible changes to selecting the Israeli Eurovision Song Contest participant was mentioned as well making people think of Kdam.
It has also been announced that there may be changes in the format to the final show which would make it more similar to the Kdam Eurovision. According to Israeli news site NRG, it was suggested that the four final constants will perform original songs and the winning song will represent Israel in the Eurovision. This is different from last year’s format, in which the song Golden Boy was revealed a few weeks after Nadav Guedj had already won the Grand Final of the show.
Yesterday (2nd of February) the production company of Rising Star for Eurovision 2016 called for Israeli songwriters to submit songs for the top four contestants, whose names are kept secret. The chosen song will have to be submitted in good time to be ready for the Head of Delegation meeting in Stockholm.
Rising Star for Eurovision 2016 show is not a live show, so while it is currently airing its Top 16, all the shows up to the Top 4 have already been recorded. The narrowing down process was done by combining the four judges’ decision with the votes of the studio audience present at the time of the recording. The Grand Final show will be live and will include a public voting.
This is the second year in a row that Rising a Star is being used to choose the Israeli participant for the Eurovision Song Contest. The winner of the 2015 season was Nadav Guedj who went on to represent Israel with Golden Boy and landed in 9th place in the Grand Final.
Kdam Eurovision (Hebrew for pre-eurovision) is the title of Israel’s public pre-selection process. The last Kdam Eurovision was held in 2013 and was won by Moran Mazor with her song Rak Bishvilo.
Israel has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest since 1973 and has participated 38 times. Israel won the contest in 1977, 1978 and 1998 and hosted the contest in Jerusalem in 1978 and 1999.
Below you can watch last year’s Israeli Eurovision entry:
