Israel: Everything that happened in the ninth HaKokhav Haba episode!

The ninth episode of HaKokhav Haba (special edition), the talent show through which Israel‘s representative for Eurovision 2024 will be selected, aired on Monday, December 25!

In episode nine, five auditions aired and four more artists went through to the next round. Assi Azar and Rotem Sela, who have been hosting HaKokhav Haba since 2014, are the show’s presenters. The jury is made up of Eden Hasson, Shiri Maimon, Itay Levy, Assaf Amdorsky, Ran Dankar, and Keren Pels.

One of the 32cartists that have already qualified for the contest’s subsequent phase will ultimately represent Israel at Eurovision 2024. The presenters announced that the auditions will conclude the next week.

Michel Cohen

Michel, 25-year-old from Dimona, won the first season of “Μusic School” as a child and now he tries to represent Israel in Eurovision. He gave concerts in Israel and the whole world and he keeps on engaging with music With an 88% vote, and the vote of all the judges, Michel qualifies for the next phase.

Itai Ben Shalom

Itay, 23-year-old from Binyamina, and he studied in a music high school and at Ramon, he served in a military compound and he now dreams of representing Israel in Eurovision. Two judges thought his performance was old-fashioned and they didn’t vote. With the minimum threshold of 70%, he qualifies to the next phase.

Roman Belove

Roman, a 24-year-old refugee from Russia, left Moscow when the Russo-Ukrainian war started. His music style is rock. His performance confused the judges, with some being amazed and some not. He qualifies with a score of 72% to the next phase.

Sharon Kiddoshin

Sharon, 30-year-old from Tel Aviv, took part in the fourth season of  “The Star is Born” and ended up in fourth place. In the end of the season, she didn’t know how to keep on with her career and so abstained. Sharon chose to sing a new song, which she devotes to all women of Israel, that have gaced the cruelties of war. With the vote of all the judges, he qualifies with 79%.

In the upcoming episode—the airdate of which is still unknown— additional auditions will be broadcasted. Israel qualified for the finals every year from 2015 to 2020 through HaKokhav HaBa, and Netta won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018 with the song “Toy”.

Israel was represented this year by Noa Kirel and the song “Unicorn”, which came in third place with 362 points overall.

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the Israeli participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, in Malmö!