Israel LIVE - First Semi Final -video

Boaz performed "The fire in your eyes" in the 1st Semi Final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 and he has qualified for the final.





Israel was drawn 7th in the Final.

First semi final results

The representatives of nineteen countries have presented their songs tonight in the First Semi-Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest.

After all songs had been presented, televoting started in all the participating countries as well as in Spain and Germany, who are already qualified for the Final, but were drawn to vote in the First Semi-Final.

Nine of the qualifying countries were decided by televoting. Furthermore, the highest placed song in the result of the national backup juries which was not yet qualified through televoting got a place in the Final as well. However, the TV public will only find out which country it was after the Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday.


The following countries have qualified for the Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest (in order of announcement):

Greece - video
Romania - video
Bosnia and Herzegovina - video
Finland - video
Russia - video
Israel - video
Azerbaijan - video
Armenia - video
Poland - video
Norway - video

eurovision.tv has an exclusive video with the reactions af all semi finalists right after their performance in front of the Eurovision.tv camera crew.

Israel rehearsal and press conference

Boaz Mauda had a very good rehearsal. Great stage performance along with his backing vocal. The song "Fire in your eyes" is performed in Hebrew throughout apart from one line in English.


Rehearsal and reactions of Boaz



Press conference

The delegation spoke of how pleased they were to have someone with Boaz's talents representing them this year. They also commented on the strength of the Swedish entry this year, saying that they were singing it in corridors! Needless to say they like that song, as well as the Swiss, Serbian and Romanian entries. Boaz revealed that in the next press conference he will be accompanied by Dana International (ESC 1998 winner), who is one of his song composers.


sources:esctoday.com;oikotimes.com;eurovision.tv

IBA confirms Kohav Nolad for 2008 Eurovision

IBA and Channel 2 have officially announced a deal by which the talent show Kohav Nolad will be the national selection for Israel, YNET newspaper reports.

Instead of IBA, Channel 2 will air a new KDAM Eurovision show with the participants of the talent show from all five seasons and through televoting the viewers will select the entrant to represent the country in the 2008 Belgrade Eurovision.

This is the first time IBA will not host a national selection show but still the new way of thinking for such a collaboration will unite the two broadcaster to a very special collaboration.

Possible participants in such selection are: Chen Aharoni, Alissa Shparaga and Miriam Tukan, Liron Lev, Shiri Biton, Raphael Mirilla and Adi Cohen

source:oikotimes.com

Three idols in the running for representing Israel

belgovision.com reports:

Boaz Mauda, Marina Maximillian Blumin or Shlomi Barel will represent Israel at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrado. The three of them qualified for the final of Kohav Nolad on Channel Two. The Israeli version of Idols is used as first selection round for Belgrade by national broadcaster IBA.

How the Israeli selections for the Eurovision Song Contest will proceed remains unclear. Fact is that Israeli broadcaster IBA and the producers of Kohav Nolad, the Israeli version of Idols, agreed that one of the three finalists in Kohav Nolad would go on to represent Israel at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade. In the Serbian capital, Boaz Mauda, Marina Maximillian Blumin or Shlomi Barel will take part in the semifinals.

Finalists of 'A Star is Born' to represent Israel in 2008?

After Teapacks' fiasco in the last Eurovision competition, the Israeli broadcasting authority will decide whether to send one of the finalists of 'A Star is Born' to represent Israel in 2008.

Beyond the car, the recording contract and the fame, another prize will be added to the list the top-three finalists of "A Star is Born": a chance to represent Israel in the 2008 Eurovision competition. Although we question the decision, there's no doubt these guys are talented enough to sweep the European crowd.

Full article here

Three idols in running for representing Israel

Israel will join the JESC and EDC in 2008

esctoday.com reports:

Israeli news website, NRG.co.il reported this week that there is a serious initiative within the IBA to join Eurovision's Junior and Dance Contests in 2008. As part of this move, IBA plans to broadcast live the 2007 editions.

According to this report, the head of entertainment at IBA and head of delegation to Eurovision, Yoav Ginay, has already started promoting the necessary formal measures needed for Israel to join the 2008 editions of the Junior and Dance contests.

In order to guarantee Israel's right to participate in these two contests next year, IBA is said to have already paid for the rights to broadcast the upcoming Dance Contest, live from London and the Junior Contest, from the Netherlands.

Dana International wins the OGAE Israel preselection

Dana International is the winner of the OGAE Israel selection for the OGAE International contest of OGAESC 2007 with the song Hakol Ze Letova t Dana International ranked 1st with 261 pts while Sarit Hadat (2002 Israeli entrant) came 2nd with 189 points.

Listen the song here

source:OGAE Israel

Help OGAE Israel pick their entry for the OGAE Song Contest 2007

Source:OGAE Malta

OGAE Israel is happy to invite you to help them choose their entry for OGESC 2007.

"Sabress" is the name of our pre-selection for the Ogae song contest 2007 & it's the second year of that format. From a total entries of 30 and after 3 semi-finals OGAE Israel got to the final stage: the BIG FINAL!

Below is the link to the final in which you can watch the competing entries via youtube and cast your votes!Please be kind enough to forward this message to your friends.
http://forums.nana10.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=499797

OGAE Israel thanks you for your co-operation and may the best song win!

Israel online Dana's new videoclip "Love boy"

You can watch the videoclip at this link:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3420649,00.html

Israel will participate in Serbia

from esctoday.com

Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot and Ynet.co.il report today that IBA and the producing company of the Israeli Pop Idol series have agreed on a cooperation in which one if the 3 finalists of this season will represent Israel in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest.

According to today's report in Yediot Ahronot, IBA's head of entertainment, Yoav Ginay, has reached an agreement with Israeli Pop Idol's (Kohav Nolad) producers. In accordance with this agreement, one of the 3 finalists of Kohav Nolad's current season will automatically be selected to represent Israel in Serbia.

"This is one of the most interesting national selection procedure we can think of", said Ginay to the newspaper. It should be mentioned, that this cooperation is unique, since IBA and Channel 2 (broadcaster of Kohav Nolad) are adversaries.

It is said that the main reasons for IBA's approach to Kohav Nolad are the lowest viewing figures of the recent Eurovision Song Contest and the lack of budget to produce a decent national selection in 2008.

Israel was one of the most successful Eurovision Song Contest competitors throughout the 70s (2 wins), 80s and 90s (1 win). In recent years, fortunes have fallen sharply, the only strong result since 1999 being Shiri Maimon's 4th place in 2005, and she was a Pop Idol semi-finalist in 2004.

Next year's Israeli participant at the Eurovision Song Contest will have to sing first at the contest's semifinal, due to Teapacks 24th position in the semifinal in Helsinki.

Dana International conquers Israeli radio again

from esctoday.com

Dana International's new single, Love boy, the second one from her new album has stormed the radio stations in Israel. The song reached the first place on the combined airplay chart of all radio stations in the country and has put Dana back in business, for the first time in a long while.

For quite a long while, the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest winner, Dana International, has kept a low profile in the Israeli music scene. She has been recently signed in one of Israel's leading record labels, Hed Arzi, and a new album is scheduled to be released, probably this August. In the build up to the album's release, Dana has been everywhere in the Israeli media lately: television interviews in all the national channels, magazines and internet websites.

The first single from this upcoming album, Hakol ze letova (Everything is for the better), was released a couple of months ago and gained popularity but nothing compares to the next single, Love boy, which instantly became a massive hit. This summer hit immediately topped the charts in various radio stations and has conquered the first place in this week's combined airplay chart of all radio stations in Israel. The song's chorus containts two verses from an old song of Avi Toledano's (Israel 1982).

Ofer Menachem, Dana's PR manager at Hed Arzi, told Esctoday.com: "We are proud and happy with Dana's success with us. Dana's fans can expect the album to be out real soon and it will be available for purchasing, even from abroad, in the near future". The new album will also include a special remix of one of the other tracks, You get down on me, by the leading DJ, Junior Vasquez.

The song Love Boy, which turned into a massive summer hit and gained the support of the radio stations and music critics, has certainly put Dana International in the spotlight in Israel, after a long while.

You are able to listen to the song on Dana International's official website, by clicking here.

A remix for the song is also available for listening- click here (the tracks will start playing automatically by opening the links).