Israel: KAN opens submission window for the Eurovision 2021 song selection
The Israeli public broadcaster, KAN, has opened the submission window for the selection through which the Eurovision 2021 entry will be selected.
After this year’s unprecedent cancellation of Eurovision due to the covid-19 pandemic, KAN decided to stick with its ESC 2020 hopeful, Eden Alene, in the next edition of the contest in Rotterdam. Now the broadcaster is making an open invitation to interested composers and songwriters to submit their entries that could the potential Eurovision 2021 entry for Eden . All interested songwriters can submit their song HERE
Lyricists and composers are invited to send their music proposals until October 5, 2020. They must have the Israeli citizenship and there are no restriction regarding the song’s language. Once the submission deadline expires, a jury of professionals will choose a total of 16 songs, which in November will go public on KAN’s offiical website. A set of 8 songs will qualify to the next phase, with the public vote choosing the 4 of them and the professional jury the rest 4.
Two semi finals will follow with four songs competing in each semi final round and only the two entries from each one advancing to the final show. All songs during the semi finals will be performed either by the creators themselves or another artist. Eden Alene will perform on stage only in the final four songs.
The final show of the song selection is expected to take place by mid February.
THE EUROVISION STORY SO FAR
Israel has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 40 times since making its debut in 1973. Israel’s first appearance at the contest in 1973 was successful, with Ilanit finishing fourth. Israel has achieved 4 victories, in 1978 and 1979, with first two wins for Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta, with the song “A-Ba-Ni-Bi”and Gali Atari and Milk and Honey, with “Hallelujah” . Its third victory came in 1998, with Dana International and “Diva” and its fourth in 2018 with Netta’s song Toy.
The country’s best results apart from its victories were the second-place finishes for Avi Toledano in 1982 and Ofra Haza in 1983. Former winner Izhar Cohen returned to place fifth in 1985. Duo Datz finished third in 1991, while Eden finished fifth in 1999. Israel has hosted the contest three times, in 1979 and 1999, both in Jerusalem and in 2019 in Tel Aviv.
After the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Israel has failed to reach the final six times. In 2014, the country failed to qualify for the fourth consecutive year, when Mei Feingold finished 14th (out of 15) in the second semi final, despite being one of the favorites to qualify. In 2015, Israel reached the final for the first time in five years, with Nadav Guedj finishing ninth. The only Israeli entrant to achieve a better result in the 21st century before their 2018 win was Shiri Maimon in 2005, who gave the country its tenth top five result in the contest, finishing fourth.
In 2018 Netta Brazilai brought the trophy home winning Eurovision 2018 in Lisbon with her song Toy. Next year the host nation was represented by Kobi Marimi and his entry “Home” which finished 23rd in the Grand final.
This year Eden Alene won the talent show “The next Star” and the ticket to Rotterdam where she was going to perform the nationally selected song Feker Libi. Due to the covid-19 pandemic the contest was cancelled interrupting Eden’s Eurovision journey. However Eden must find a new song for next year’s competition after EBU’s decision to not allow to the Eurovision 2020 entries to compete in the 2021 edition of the contest .
That’s remember Eden’s uptempo full in motion ESC 2020 entry:
