Information about the Eurovision 2017 Israeli selection surfaced today. Details about the date as well as the format with which the country’s representative to Kyiv will be chosen were reported in the Hayom paper.
The report confirmed that the Israeli representative will be selected through the Rising Star format for Eurovision and that the final of the selection will take place on Monday 13th February.
It was also reported that native singer-songwriter Nathan Goshen will be involved in the semi final of the show, though it has not become known yet what his exact role will be.
Whether the winner of the selection will go on to represent Israel with the song they will be competing with in the national selection or with a different entry has not been clarified either.
Rising Star is a singing competition show with editions in many countries around the world. These are all based on the Israeli HaKokhav HaBa (The Next Star) concept. Contrary to similar talent shows, it is largely the home audience who act as the judges using a special mobile voting app.
HaKokhav HaBa La’Eirovizion (or Rising Star for Eurovision as it is sometimes called outside Israel) is a special version of the show that, for a second year in a row, will be used as the Israeli national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Last year, it was Hovi Star who had won Rising Star for Eurovision and went on to represent his country in Stockholm with Made Of Stars. Hovi Star managed to qualify to the grand final and finished in fourteenth position, having placed seventh in the professional jury voting.
Will Israel manage to improve on Hovi Star’s satisfying performance this year?
Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest
It was back in 1973 that Israel first joined the Eurovision Song Contest. With three victories in 1978, 1979 and 1998 and no less than nineteen top ten placements in 39 appearances, the country has been rather successful. Since the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, results took a turn for the worse however.
Israel failed to qualify for the grand final in 2004 when David D’Or finished twelfth in the semi-final. In 2007, Teapacks missed out on the final as well, and, in 2011, Eurovision 1998 winner Dana International’s comeback kicked off a four-year run of Israel not reaching the final.
Things started looking better again for Israel in 2015, when Nadav Guedj with his song Golden Boy managed to bring Israel back to a Eurovision top ten placing finishing ninth in Vienna.
In the following video, you can watch Hovi Star taking part in our Would You Rather interview game in Stockholm. Enjoy!
