Israel’s Next Star: Netta Barzilai to Eurovision!

Over the last few months, Israel has been holding their national final, HaKokhav HaBa L’Eurovision, The Next Star for Eurovision, featuring rounds of auditions, heats and finals. The competition is now complete, with the artist to repersent Israel now selected.

A total of 20 shows were broadcast, all hosted by Assi Azar and Rotem Sela. The shows featured a jury consisting of Static & Ben El Tavori, Asaf Amdursky, Keren Peles and Harel Skaat. The final featured four acts and two rounds. The first round saw two duels take place, where the act with the highest score in each duel continuing through to the second round. The jury members could also vote to save another act, meaning there were three in the second round. Here are the four finalists:

• Jonathan Mergui

• Chen Aharoni

• Riki Ben Ari

• Netta Barzilai

Winning the duels were Jonathan Mergui and Riki Ben Ari, and with the votes to save from the jury, the third superfinalist was Netta Barzilai. In the second round, both an extended jury and the televoters had their say, and after the performances were completed, it was revealed that Netta Barzilai had captured both the jury and televoters, beating Jonathan Mergui by only 5 points.

After such a long competition, unfortunately the wait is not yet over as we now have to wait for the song to be released. The song selection is an internal process, and the broadcaster invites Israeli songwriters and composers to submit their entries.

Stay tuned for more news!