Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021

Israel will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, having internally selected Eden Alene as their representative. She was due to compete in the 2020 contest with "Feker Libi" before the event's cancellation.

Eurovision Song Contest 2021
Country	Israel
National selection
Selection process	Artist: Internal selection Song: HaShir Shelanu L'Eurovizion
Selection date(s)	Artist: 22 March 2020 Song: 25 January 2021
Selected entrant	Eden Alene
Selected song	"Set Me Free"
Selected songwriter(s)	Noam Zaltin Ido Netzer Amit Mordechai Ron Carmi
Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2020 • 2021

Background

Prior to the 2021 contest, Israel had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-two times since its first entry in 1973.[1]

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 the semi-finals in 2004, Israel has failed to reach the final six times. In 2005, Shiri Maimon gave the country its tenth top five result, finishing fourth. Having failed to qualify for the final for four consecutive years (2011–14), Israel reached the final for the first time in five years, with Nadav Guedj finishing ninth in 2015, and the country has participated in the final every year since. Israel's fourth victory came when Netta won the 2018 contest in Lisbon, with the song "Toy". The following year, when the contest was held in Israel, Kobi Marimi represented the country on home soil with the song "Home", finishing twenty-third with 35 points in the final.

Before Eurovision

Artist selection

On 22 March 2020, KAN confirmed that Eden Alene would be kept as the Israeli representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021.[2]

HaShir Shelanu L'Eurovizion

The song that Eden Alene will represent Israel with in Rotterdam was selected through a national final called HaShir Shelanu L'Eurovizion.[3] On 16 September 2020, KAN opened the public song submission following the announcement of Alene as the selected artist with the deadline on 15 October 2020.[4] 220 submissions were received, which were subsequently evaluated by a professional committee consisting of Ofri Gopher (Director of KAN Music Stations), Roi Dalmadigo (Editor of KAN Gimel), Tal Argaman (DJ and music editor at KAN 88), Alona Kedem (Editor of KAN 88 and KAN Gimel), Tali Katz (Head of Delegation for Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest) and Michael Weisberg (CEO of Aroma Music) that selected nine songs for the competition.[5][6]

Final

The winning song was selected over two rounds of online voting through KAN's official website. In the first round, demo versions of the nine competing songs were released on 2 December 2020 and the public was able to vote until 13 December 2020.[7] The two songs with the most votes advanced to the second round and the professional committee selected an additional song from the remaining seven to advance.[8] In the second round, the three songs, finalized and re-recorded by Alene, were to be released on 18 January 2021, however the songs were officially released on 5 January 2021 after an early publication by the newspaper Israel Hayom.[9][10] The public was able to vote for their favourite song between 19 January and 25 January 2021 and the winning song was revealed during a special televised broadcast on 25 January 2021.[11][12]

  Online vote qualifier   Jury qualifier

First round – 2 December 2020 – 13 December 2020
Song	Language	Composer(s)	Percentage[8]	Place[8]	Result
"Can't Stop a Hurricane"	English		8.9%	6	Eliminated
"Coming Out"	English		7.3%	8	Eliminated
"Flying"	English		8.7%	7	Eliminated
"La La Love"	English, Hebrew	Yosef Bach, Gal Malka, Gil Vain	—	—	Advanced
"Rise Up Today"	English, Amharic		7.2%	9	Eliminated
"Set Me Free"	English, Hebrew	Noam Zaltin, Ido Netzer, Amit Mordechai, Ron Carmi	—	3	Advanced
"Shoulders"	English, Amharic	Zohar Barzilai, Adi Rotem	12.1%	4	Eliminated
"Spilling Magic"	English		10.4%	5	Eliminated
"Ue La La"	English, Hebrew, French	Niv Cohen, Meital Cohen, Noy Eisen, Aline Cohen	—	—	Advanced

Second round – 19 January 2021 – 25 January 2021
Song	Percentage[12]	Place
"La La Love"	17.2%	2
"Set Me Free"	71.3%	1
"Ue La La"	11.5%	3

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (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. For the 2021 contest, the semi-final allocation draw held for 2020 which was held on 28 January 2020, will be used for 2021 contest. Israel was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 18 May 2021, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[13]

The music video takes place in a cube-shaped light room and has scenes of Eden in prison. The music video uses CGI animation in some parts.

References

1. "Israel Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
2. "Eurovision 2021: Eden Alene will sing for Israel". Wiwibloggs. 22 March 2020.
3. "Israel: Eden Alene's Eurovision 2021 song will be chosen on January 25". Wiwibloggs. 3 December 2020.
4. Lee Adams, William (7 October 2020). "Israel extends Eurovision 2021 submission deadline after Eden Alene reportedly receives just 70 songs". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
5. Granger, Anthony (16 October 2020). "Israel: Around 220 Songs Submitted For Eurovision 2021". Eurovoix. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
6. Granger, Anthony (19 October 2020). "Israel: Selection Committee Meets To Select Eden Alene's Selection Songs". Eurovoix. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
7. Gallagher, Robyn (2 December 2020). "Israel: KAN reveals the nine shortlisted songs for Eden Alene, as online vote opens". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
8. "כאן אירוויזיון". Facebook. KAN. 4 January 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
9. "האזינו: כל שירי הקדם אירוויזיון בביצוע המלא". ישראל היום (in Hebrew). Retrieved 5 January 2021.
10. "כאן". Facebook. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
11. Granger, Anthony (4 January 2020). "Israel: Final Versions Of The Three HaShir HaBa L'Eurovizion To Be Revealed on January 18". Eurovoix. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
12. "כאן אירוויזיון". Facebook. KAN. 27 January 2021. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
13. Groot, Evert (17 November 2020). "2020 Semi-Final line-up to stay for 2021". eurovision.tv. Eurovision Song Contest. Archived from the original on 18 November 2020. Retrieved 17 November 2020.