Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023

Eurovision Song Contest 2023
Eurovision Song Contest 2023
Country	Israel
National selection
Selection process	Internal selection
Selection date(s)	Artist: 10 August 2022; Song: 8 March 2023
Selected entrant	Noa Kirel
Selected song	"Unicorn"
Selected songwriter(s)	Doron Medalie; May Sfadia; Yinon Yahel; Noa Kirel;
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (3rd, 127 points)
Final result	3rd, 362 points
Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest

Israel participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. The Israeli broadcaster Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC/Kan) internally selected Noa Kirel to represent the country with the song "Unicorn", which was written by Kirel along with Doron Medalie, May Sfadia, and Yinon Yahel. Kirel was announced as the Israeli representative on 10 August 2022, while the song, "Unicorn", was presented to the public on 8 March 2023.

Israel was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2023. Performing during the show in position 9, "Unicorn" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 14 May. It was later revealed that Israel placed third out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 127 points. In the final, Israel performed in position 23 and placed third out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 362 points.^[1]

Background

Prior to the 2023 contest, Israel has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-four times since its first entry in 1973.^[2] Israel has won the contest on four occasions: in 1978 with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" performed by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta, in 1979 with the song "Hallelujah" performed by Milk and Honey, in 1998 with the song "Diva" performed by Dana International and in 2018 with the song "Toy" performed by Netta Barzilai. Since the introduction of semi-finals to the format of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, Israel has, to this point, managed to qualify to the final eleven times, including three top ten results in 2005 with Shiri Maimon and "Hasheket Shenish'ar" placing fourth, in 2008 with Boaz and "The Fire In Your Eyes" placing ninth, and in 2015 with Nadav Guedj and "Golden Boy" placing ninth, in addition to the victory in 2018. In 2022, Michael Ben David with the song "I.M" failed to qualify for the final.

The Israeli national broadcaster, Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC/Kan), has been in charge of the nation's participation in the contest since 2018. Kan confirmed Israel's participation in the contest on 21 February 2021.^[3] Between 2015 and 2020, the Israeli entry was selected through the reality singing competition HaKokhav HaBa L'Eurovizion ("The Next Star for Eurovision") in collaboration with Keshet and Tedy Productions, while in 2022, Kan cooperated with Reshet to select the Israeli entry through the reality singing competition The X Factor Israel.^[4]^[5] On 13 June 2022, Kan announced that they would not continue their cooperation with Reshet and would independently conduct an internal selection to select the artist that would represent Israel instead. This marked the first time since 2014 that Israel had used an internal selection, and the first time that Kan selected the Israeli entry without collaborating with other broadcasters.^[6]

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

The Israeli representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was internally selected by Kan.^[7] A special committee consisting of members from Kan, music editors and external representatives each suggested two artists from 78 initially considered based on airplay on Gimel and Galgalatz, and nominees for Singer of the Year and Group of the Year awards in 2019, 2020 and 2021.^[8]^[9] Among artists that were considered included Mergui, Ella-Lee Lahav, Noa Kirel, Static & Ben-El Tavori and Ran Danker.^[10] The members of the committee were Ofri Gopher (Director of Kan Music Stations), Yuval Cohen (Creative Director and Deputy Executive Producer of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019), Kobi Nussbaum (Head of Production at Kan), Sharon Drix (culture and entertainment director of Kan), Tali Katz (Head of Delegation for Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest), Tal Argaman (DJ and music editor at Kan 88), Yossi Gispan (lyricist), Eden Darso (singer-songwriter), Avia Farchi (MTV Israel presenter) and Leon Feldman (music editor and presenter).^[11] On 11 July 2022, Kan announced that Noa Kirel had topped the list with Mergui placing second.^[11]^[12] Despite Kirel stating the following day that she and her team had yet to make a decision, Israeli television channel HaHadashot 12 reported in early August 2022 that the invitation had been accepted by the singer, which was later confirmed during a press conference held at the Hotel Carlton in Tel Aviv on 10 August 2022.^[13]^[14]^[15]

Kirel was given artistic freedom from the Israeli broadcaster.^[16] The singer was offered songwriters from other countries, but decided to stick with a local Israeli team for Eurovision, adding that her song will contain "all kinds of ethnic, Mediterranean and even Israeli directions".^[16] In early September 2022, it was reported that the Israeli song would be created in a songwriting camp that would allow songwriters to work with each other to create their entry, with composers such as Doron Medalie, Ron Beaton, Jordi, Nitzan Kaykov, Itay Shimoni, and Eitan Peled all being rumoured to take part.^[17] In late September 2022, the Israeli budget for the contest was revealed to be around US$900,000, with a majority being covered by Kirel's team, and the rest by Kan.^[16]

On 17 January 2023, it was revealed that "Unicorn", written by Medalie, May Sfadia, Yinon Yahel and Kirel herself, was chosen to represent Israel from an initial pool of four songs.^[18]^[19] On 8 March, "Unicorn" and its accompanying music video was premiered during a special televised broadcast titled HaShir Shelanu L'Eurovizion ("Our Song for Eurovision") on Kan 11, as well as online via kan.org.il.^[20]^[21]

Promotion

To promote the song, Kirel was featured with the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, along with the First Lady of Israel, Michal Herzog. In interviews, Kirel was stated that she would show "chutzpah" during her Eurovision performance.^[22]^[23]

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Israel has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.^[24]

Once all the competing songs for the 2023 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Israel was set to perform in position 9, following the entry from Switzerland and before the entry from Moldova.^[25]

At the end of the show, Israel was announced as a qualifier for the final.

Voting

Points awarded to Israel

Points awarded to Israel (Semi-final 1)^[26]
Score	Televote
12 points	Azerbaijan Czech Republic Moldova Rest of the World
10 points
8 points	France Latvia Malta
7 points	Croatia Portugal Serbia Switzerland
6 points	Ireland Italy
5 points	Norway
4 points	Netherlands
3 points	Sweden
2 points	Germany
1 point	Finland

Points awarded to Israel (Final)^[1]
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Armenia Azerbaijan Cyprus Rest of the World	Armenia Azerbaijan France Italy Poland
10 points	France Moldova San Marino	Belgium Lithuania Serbia
8 points	Czech Republic	Croatia Greece Spain
7 points	Greece Serbia Spain	Cyprus Ireland Georgia Malta
6 points	Georgia Malta Netherlands Romania	Albania
5 points	Albania Australia Belgium Italy Latvia Poland Portugal	Latvia Sweden
4 points	Croatia	Estonia Romania United Kingdom
3 points	Lithuania Norway Switzerland United Kingdom	Norway
2 points		Netherlands
1 point	Austria Ireland Ukraine	Switzerland Ukraine

Points awarded by Israel

Points awarded by Israel (Semi-final 1)^[26]
Score	Televote
12 points	Finland
10 points	Norway
8 points	Czech Republic
7 points	Sweden
6 points	Moldova
5 points	Croatia
4 points	Switzerland
3 points	Portugal
2 points	Malta
1 point	Azerbaijan

Points awarded by Israel (Final)^[1]
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Finland	Sweden
10 points	Norway	Norway
8 points	Ukraine	Finland
7 points	Italy	Ukraine
6 points	Croatia	Austria
5 points	Moldova	Estonia
4 points	Sweden	Czech Republic
3 points	Armenia	Belgium
2 points	Czech Republic	Poland
1 point	France	Cyprus

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Israeli jury:

Amir Ben-David
Ron Biton
Adi "Perry" Cohen
Tal Argaman Peleg
Yasmin Ishbi

Detailed voting results from Israel (Semi-final 1)^[26]
Draw	Country	Televote
Draw	Country	Rank	Points
01	Norway	2	10
02	Malta	9	2
03	Serbia	13
04	Latvia	12
05	Portugal	8	3
06	Ireland	14
07	Croatia	6	5
08	Switzerland	7	4
09	Israel
10	Moldova	5	6
11	Sweden	4	7
12	Azerbaijan	10	1
13	Czech Republic	3	8
14	Netherlands	11
15	Finland	1	12

Detailed voting results from Israel (Final)^[1]
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Austria	1	5	20	6	16	5	6	13
02	Portugal	23	20	24	21	21	25		18
03	Switzerland	10	6	5	19	10	12		15
04	Poland	2	16	10	7	22	9	2	14
05	Serbia	22	21	9	14	17	16		23
06	France	21	22	23	15	18	21		10	1
07	Cyprus	11	7	21	5	7	10	1	12
08	Spain	9	12	8	11	14	14		19
09	Sweden	3	1	1	3	1	1	12	7	4
10	Albania	24	17	22	16	13	20		24
11	Italy	12	11	11	13	9	15		4	7
12	Estonia	13	10	13	4	3	6	5	20
13	Finland	18	2	2	22	4	3	8	1	12
14	Czech Republic	4	9	12	10	5	7	4	9	2
15	Australia	17	14	18	17	20	19		11
16	Belgium	5	13	7	8	6	8	3	21
17	Armenia	8	24	6	12	15	13		8	3
18	Moldova	16	8	4	9	11	11		6	5
19	Ukraine	6	4	16	2	8	4	7	3	8
20	Norway	7	3	3	1	2	2	10	2	10
21	Germany	20	18	19	24	25	22		17
22	Lithuania	15	19	15	20	12	17		25
23	Israel
24	Slovenia	14	23	14	18	19	18		16
25	Croatia	25	15	25	25	24	24		5	6
26	United Kingdom	19	25	17	23	23	23		22