Israel: Netta Barzilai the country’s Eurovision 2018 representative.

The Israeli national final of  The Next Star finished just a few minutes ago declaring as big winner  Netta Barzilai, who will represent the country in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest next May in Lisbon.

The final outcome was determined in two voting rounds. Initially the 4 finalists were divided into two duels and performed one song each one. From each duel the one that received the highest percentage of positive public and jury votes, moved on to the second voting round. The jury consisted of  Static & Ben-El Tavori, Keren Peles, Harel Skaat and Assaf Amdursky. After that the judges had the right to save one of the two left behind in votes, to  join the other two in the 2nd round of voting.

The results after the first round of voting were:

• First duel

Jonathan Mergui 91% – Chen Aharoni 71%

• Second duel

Riki Ben Ari 82% – Netta Barzilai 75%

From the two contestants that got less votes the judges decided to give a second chance to Netta Berzilai.

During the second round the 3 acts performed one more song each. After the the jury’s and the audience’s votes  Netta Barzilai was declared winner of the final.

Here are the overall results of both two rounds:

Duel	Draw	Artist	Song	Judges’ vote				Score	Result
				Amdursky	Peles	Skaat	Static & Tavori
First Round
I	1	Jonathan Mergui	«Get Ugly«					91%	Advanced
	2	Chen Aharoni	«Neshima»					72%	4th
II	3	Riki Ben Ari	«Proud Mary«					82%	Advanced
	4	Netta Barzilai	«»					75%	Advanced
Second Round
III	5	Riki Ben Ari	«Total Eclipse of the Heart«	8	8	8	8	125	3rd
	6	Jonathan Mergui	«When I Was Your Man«	10	12	10	12	205	2nd
	7	Netta Barzilai	«Tik Tok» / «Gangnam Style«	12	10	12	10	210	1st

The song that  Netta will perform on the Eurovision of Altrice Arena will be internally selected and released in the days to come.

Enjoy once more Netta’s winning performance in tonight’s national final: