“Hello You”: Doron’s song for the new Israeli-UAE relations!

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The normalisation of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates has produced its first musical collaboration: “Ahlan Bik”, or “Hello you” in Arabic.

“This is a historic moment,” said Israeli singer Elkana Marziano, whose duet with Emirati artist Walid Aljasim has clocked more than 1.1 million YouTube views since it was posted on September 30.

Marziano, 28, is a former winner of Israel’s version of The Voice, a singing competition TV show, and an Arabic speaker influenced by the Mizrahi culture of Jews from the Arab world.

He told AFP that he and Aljasim had collaborated over the Zoom video-conferencing service, with some parts of the song recorded in Dubai and others in Israel.

“The understanding was immediate,” Marziano said of the partnership.

One online commentator, who posted under the name Shaked Sharon, said: “With this song, you feel the new Middle East.”

The ‘new Middle East’? 

In August, Israel and the UAE announced that they had reached a US-brokered deal to normalise ties, following years of discreet economic and security cooperation.

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, approved the UAE deal on Thursday.

Bahrain ultimately joined the pact known as the Abraham Accords signed at the White House last month, making it and the UAE the third a fourth Arab states to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel.

Israel signed a peace agreement with neighbouring Egypt in 1979 and with Jordan in 1994.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has boasted that the Gulf deals highlight shifting priorities in the region.

The right-winger has insisted that more Arab states want ties with Israel even though its conflict with the Palestinians remains unresolved.

The UAE’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan has said the pact “opens the way to a new era of cooperation”.

Palestinian leaders have condemned the deals and called on the Arab world to withhold establishing ties with Israel until it reaches a viable peace with the Palestinians.

While some YouTube commenters have celebrated “Ahlan Bik”, others have condemned the song and Israeli-Emirati normalisation, while calling for the creation of a Palestinian state.

Live concert

The song was written by Doron Medalie, who also wrote “Toy”, which won the 2018 Eurovision contest in Israel.

The chorus — “I hear you friend far away, far away” — is repeated in the three languages, while the music video’s action pivots from Marziano dancing with friends in Israel to Aljasim in Dubai.

Marziano said that peace was a common theme in Israeli music, which has regularly been in conflict with its neighbours since its founding in 1948.

He said it was a “personal victory” to see young Israelis and Emiratis interacting online to discuss the song on his YouTube page, adding that he is planning a live concert with Aljasim when the coronavirus pandemic ends.

“I am very moved by the idea of singing this song, and others, on the same stage (with Aljasim),” Marziano told AFP.

Source: Moneycontrol

Israel: With Eden Alene at Eurovision 2021

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Following the official cancellation of this year’s contest in Rotterdam, many countries are already in a hurry to give their anchor for 2021 early this year.

Ten countries have already made that decision, including this year’s organizer The Netherlands and Greece, so they want to give their artists the chance to finally be on the scene one year later.

Israel is on the list of those countries today. The country’s public broadcaster, KAN, announced recently that due to the spread of the killer virus in Europe, this year’s country’s representative , Eden Alene, will represent Israel at the competition next year.

“We will win. This time, the song will be even better”, as she stated herself.

Eden Alene was informed of the cancellation of the airing contest she was invited to and could not hold back her tears as you can see in the video below.

Israel: Listen to the final version of Eden Alene’s “Feker Libi”

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With her “HaKokhav Haba L’Eurovizion 2020″ victory, Eden Alene took the anchor and will represent Israel at Eurovision 2020 in Rotterdam. Soon after, Israel’s broadcaster KAN set up a campus of composers attended by the country’s top creators. On February 13th the titles and the composers of the four candidate songs for Eden were made public, while on February 27th we listened to these four songs.

Through “The Next Song to Eurovision”, Eden Alene presented the four candidate songs. Lucy Ayoub, one of last year’s contestants in Tel Aviv, hosted the show. At the end of the night, the winning song was “Feker Libi” and Eden Alene will travel to Rotterdam to represent Israel.

Shortly thereafter, the final version of this year’s Israeli entry was released, just as we will listen to on the semifinal night.

Listen to the revamp of “Feker Libi” below:

Israel: Eden Alene will not travel to the Netherlands for postcard filming

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Under the shadow of the coronavirus, today’s annual meeting of the Heads of Delegations participating in the 65th Eurovision Song Contest is taking place in Rotterdam.

The coronavirus is increasingly “touching” the preparations  for 65th Eurovision. The Israeli delegation during the meeting informed that the country’s envoy would not travel to the Netherlands to shoot the postcard. Cause, of course, the COVID-19 surge. So there is a big headache about Israel’s postcard. It is possible to either change the project in general or create a postcard without the physical presence of Eden Alene!

During the meeting each country has a representative who is informed about the upcoming Eurovision. The meeting also marks the official deadline for submitting each country’s participation.

 

https://youtu.be/YjzyZZ-oidc

Israel: Tonight, “The Next Song to Eurovision” | Which song will be selected for Eden Alene?

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On February 4, the winner of the HaKokhav Haba L’Eurovizion 2020 was Eden Alene. Soon after, Israel’s national broadcaster, KAN set up a campus of composers attended by the country’s top creators. On February 13th the titles and the composers of the four candidate songs for Eden were made public, while on February 27th we listen to these four songs.

Tonight,Israel chooses entry via “The Next Song to Eurovision”, where Eden Alene will present the four candidate songs. Lucy Ayoub, one of last year’s contestants in Tel Aviv, will host the show.

The four candidate songs are:

1. “Roots”

Creators: Nathan Goshen and Stav Beger

2. “Feker libi”

Creators: Doron Medalie and Idan Raichel

3.  “Savior In the Sound” 

Creators: Oren Emanuel, Talia Londoner and Uri Avni

4. “Rakata”

Creators: Gal Joe Cohen, Eyal Ishay, Zlil Kalifi, Eran Kashi

The results will come up  both from the television audience and a professional jury:

-30% audience / TV
-65% professional jury
-5% reviewers of HaKokhav Haba L’Eurovizion 2020
The show will start at 8:30 pm CET time and you can watch it HERE.

 

Israel: KAN changes the selection method from 2021 onwards

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An announcement of the production of “The Next Star” indicates that this year will be the last year in which Israel selects the artist to represent the country at the Eurovision contest through this talent show.

After 7 years, the decision on how to choose a representative for the country will be taken by KAN and that “The Next Star (HaKokhav HaBa)” will no longer be associated with the competition.

Since 2015, “The Next Star (HaKokhav HaBa)” has been the process of selecting his / her Israeli representative in the Eurovision contest, yielding very good results for the country, including a victory, after years of failures and exclusions.

The 7th season of “The Next Star” is already underway and it will select the country’s representative for Eurovision 2020 for the last year. An innovative change this season is the fact that the public will have the opportunity, beyond artist, to choose the song to be interpreted by the winner, which in recent years has been the exclusive decision of the responsible team of experts.

To date, there is no information on plans for the public broadcaster, which has announced that production companies may propose a new way to opt in for 2021.

Israel at Eurovision

Israel has been participating in the competition since 1973, and its first victory came a few years later, in 1978. Remarkably, it also won the contest in 1979, making it one of the few countries to win two. and / or more consecutive years.

Israel already have 4 wins, with the last one being in 2018, and it is the only non-European country to have won four times. The Next Star (HaKokhav HaBa) has been the method of selecting his / her country representative for the last 6 years, bringing excellent results for the country in the competition – 5 consecutive Grand Final qualifiers, including one victory – after a series years with exclusions.

Below you can see Israel’s winning entry in 2018, with Netta Barzilai and “Toy” reaching the top of the table with 529 points, the most points the country has received in the institution.

Source: KAN

Israel: Two shows for the next country’s national selection

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The Israeli broadcaster, KAN, has confirmed the country’s participation in Eurovision 2020, making Israel the 25th country that announces its participation.

Together with confirmation of participation, KAN also announced how it will choose its  representative but also the song.

Initially, the selection of the artist will be made another year through the talent show « HaKokhan HaBa L’Eurovizion », which makes sense since,using this option after 2015, the country has not lost the qualification to the final – including of course Netta ´ s victory  in 2018.

But the selection of the song is the detail that will be changed. Until this year, the song was chosen by a team of experts.  However, for 2020, KAN will organize an additional show for the selection of the song which will be determined this time by the television audience.

KAN  is expected to invite artists to participate in HaKokhan HaBa next week, but the dates of the talent show have not yet been announced.

After Netta’s victory, Israel’s next representative was Kobi Marimi with the song « Home ».  Kobi won 23rd place.

Source : eurovoix.com

Israel: Prices for the Eurovision 2019 tickets have been revealed

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Israel’s public broadcaster announced ticket prices for all Eurovision 2019 shows. Prices as it was expected are high, both because of the generally high prices in Israel and because of the small number of tickets to be sold. Read more