May 17 ➡️ the latest #Eurovision headlines

ISRAEL 🇮🇱 Itzik Braverman, Mayor of Petah Tivka announced the city will bid for hosting the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest although PM and Eurovision winner Netta, hinted Jerusalem as host city. With Tel Aviv remain the Eurofans’ wishful thinking and its Mayor withdrawing from hosting the event another city emerged. Petah Tivka is the fifth city of Israel with approximately 230,000 inhabitants and located 10 km from Tel Aviv (easy access to International Airport). Lack of venue is not an issue for the Mayor as the answer was stunning: if Azerbaijan did it in half a year we can do it as well.

ISRAEL 🇮🇱 We remain to Israel as today EBU and IPBC will have their first meeting for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. Speaking to NRK, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, Jon Ola Sand said that of course the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest edition will be more challenging than having it in Sweden but explained that the main issue is the budget of IPBC for the 2019 edition as the national broadcaster is newly founded. Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, Jon Ola Sand says that Israel is capable to organise the event as the TV skills in the country are of high standards.

SLOVAKIA 🇸🇰 Happy news from Slovakia as Rádio FM aired the Eurovision Song Contest live. The last time they did it was in 2012 when the country participated for the last time in Baku. Daniel Baláž, Pavol Hubinák, Malíček, Ela Tolstová and Celeste Buckingham commentated the event for the youth targeted audience.

ALBANIA 🇦🇱 Earlier than ever before, RTSH kicks off Festivali I Këngës by calling for singers and songs for the 57th edition of the national festival. There is yet no deadline of submissions. Usually Festivali I Këngës takes place around end of December.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/994262746249224192

BELARUS 🇧🇾 It is reported that originally the stage presentation for Alekseev’s “Forever” performance included real throw of rose petals. The rose petals would have cause extreme cleaning time in between the songs and the quantity needed for the rehearsals and the live shows would have been quite expensive. Instead the organisers replaced them with an optical visual.

UNITED KINGDOM 🇬🇧 With JOWST (Norway 2017) offering to pen the 2019 UK entry) another familiar name rises in the spotlight. Karl William Lund, participant in the 2016 UK selection and in the 2018 San Marino / 1in360 selection tweeted he is going to start penning his 2019 Eurovision song. Well.. good luck!

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Eurovision 2019 🇮🇱 political hypocrisy fronted in Ireland and Iceland

ISRAEL 🇮🇱 The latest episodes in Gaza brought many to discuss the eligibility of Israel to host the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. Irish Mayor of Dublin and 1994 Eurovision winner are against participating in the next Eurovision edition followed by an online petition in Iceland.

Now, without taking any stand and avoiding any analysis of the issue I have some keen questions. But let’s see what happened so far.

Eurovision winner Charlie McGettigan has called for Ireland to boycott next year’s contest if it is to be held in Israel. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Kids singer’s remarks came a day after 60 Palestinians, including an eight-month-old baby, were killed by Israeli troops in Gaza. “I think the people who organise the Eurovision should make a statement by not having the Eurovision in Jerusalem next year, that they should have it somewhere else,” McGettigan told Joe Duffy on RTÉ Radio 1 yesterday.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin believes Ireland should boycott the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019. Sinn Fein councillor Micheal Mac Donncha feels entering next year’s competition – which will be held in Israel – would be appropriate because of the country’s ongoing conflict with Palestine.

Councillor Mac Donncha was recently banned from entering the Middle Eastern country after attending a conference in Ramallah at the invitation of the Palestinian Authority. At the time, the Israeli embassy in Dublin accused Mac Donncha and Dublin City Council of “waging a campaign of hatred and discrimination” against them.

More than 18,000 people have signed a petition calling for Iceland to boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Israel, citing human rights violations against Palestinian people. The petition, started by developer Árni Steingrímur Sigurðsson, calls on national broadcaster RUV to withdraw Iceland from the contest.

With more than 18,000 signatures by Wednesday afternoon, the petition argues that “in view of the human rights abuses of Israel against the Palestinian people, it is morally indefensible to engage in a glamorous event like the Eurovision.”

Now my (rhetorical) questions: Back in 1999 Iceland and Ireland participated. I wonder whether suppression of the Palestines appeared later as they never protested for it. Question number two: for years the dispute between Israel and Palestine headlines the international news. Why all those years, EBU, Council of Europe and without any Head of Delegation VETO are still allowing Israel to participate? Third question: This year the Irish jury gave 7 points to Israel and the Irish public 6 points. Icelandic jury gave 8 points and the public 7 points to Israel.

I rest my case in this joke.

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Eurovision 2019 🇮🇱 is actually Israel going to host the next edition?

ISRAEL 🇮🇱 At the moment EBU has recognised Israel as the winner country of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest and their right to host the 2019 edition. Cypriot press though keep fighting hard. The latest political turmoil in Gaza, the call for boycott from many celebrities and political personalities including an online petition from Iceland, demand the contest to be removed from Israel’s hands.

The issue of Jerusalem hosting the event also causing many worries to the European Broadcasting Union who they would love at least the contest to take place in Tel Aviv (and actually most Eurofans there) and avoid any further political implications the recent recognition of the city as the capital of Israel caused.

For those who believe that Eurovision winner is fixed by the EBU it’s clear now more than ever (not to mention the Ukrainian victory which was not in the best interest of the EBU to happen) that the European Broadcasting Union cannot fix the results. Israel is a country which many fear to go due to the political and military turmoil (fair or not I am not here to discuss this).

Cyprus press claim that there are indications that the EBU could be checking if Cyprus can take over the contest in case the negotiations next week (between EBU and IPBC) fail. Officially CyBC sources deny any kind of such an issue. Rumours? Probably yes but remember in 2005 and 2017 the contest was nearly moved from the host country Ukrainian due to the orange revolution and the Russian dispute over Ukraine respectively.

Wishful thinning for the Cypriots? Probably yes but since it is reported in the regional press we thought it was the right thing to do, to report it as well. The following weeks the situation will be clear and hopefully the tradition of the EBU to have the winner country hosting the contest will prevail. It’s time for politics to stop interfere in the contest organisation.

For now it’s almost clear that Israelis want Jerusalem to host the event next year with provisional dates 21, 23 and 25 of May.

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🇮🇱 Does Netta follow Salvador’s steps insulting her competitor?

ISRAEL 🇮🇱 Last year after his victory Salvador Sobral accused some participants that had fast-food songs in the contest causing the immediate reaction of Robin Bengtsson and Alex Florea (from Sweden and Romania respectively). This year Salvador said that Netta’s song was “horrible” and most likely helped Netta actually win the entire thing. Eurofans are upset when these kind of comments happen.

But Netta seems to have down two major mistakes. One in the winner’s press conference and one last night. During the winner’s press conference she said “when the ting came into two favourites, me and Eleni from Cyprus, authenticity won” implying that Eleni Foureira didn’t bring anything original to the contest (most likely accusing her of imitating Beyoncé as if Netta is not a European version of Beth Ditto).

Last night during a satirical show in Israeli TV Netta and the TV hostess (dressed also as Netta) were laughing with Eleni Fooureira impersonation which appeared on thee studio. Thee entire thing is causing already reactions on the web and the Greek media.

Eretz Nehederet (A Wonderful Country) is a satirical Israeli television show, which made its debut on November 7, 2003. It features satirical references to current affairs of the past week through parodies of the people involved, as well as the thoughts of recurring characters. The program’s concept is inspired by Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show and others. The program is one of the most watched and influential shows on Israeli TV.[1] It is also one of the longest-running scripted shows in Israeli television to date, running for 15 seasons as of 2017. Beginning with Season 15, the program is aired on Keshet 12, in HDTV.

They make a special show about the contest and they gonna laugh about countries that didn’t give Israel any points, and just make parodies about the contestants (also the Czech singer and Denmark’s Rassmusen)

It was truly unnecessary!

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Serbia 2018 🇷🇸 Milan Lukić speaks on the UK stage invader: they were beating him on and off stage!

SERBIA 🇷🇸 Milan Lukić vocalist of Balkanika, spoke to Serbian edition of HELLO Magazine about the incident with the stage invasion during the UK entry.

Regarding the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 result he is not sad as they knew that Israel would win although Serbia ranked 19th in the final (but the country qualified despite all odds). He believes that politics played a key role in the results.

He also revealed that the cost for using the percussions was 19,000 Euros asked by the organisers as it was difficult to bring them from Serbia and they offered to make the same in Portugal.

A month ago the band was in Tel Aviv for the Eurovision promo event and it was clear to them that the country wanted to win

Regarding the man who invaded the Eurovision stage during the UK performance, Milan says that the security beat him on and off stage in front off us who just left the stage as we were next to perform, Milan says. He also ignores the comments by Daily Mail calling him a man who looks like a Satanist.

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🇮🇱 Dana International believed in Netta (although she supported UK), ignores Cyprus and forgives the PM

ISRAEL 🇮🇱 Reading the latest interview of Dana International in Haaretz.com we were kinda surprised. First of all wee read that Dana International believed that Netta would have won the Eurovision Song Contest although speaking to oikotimes.com during the Israel Calling 2018 party, she openly supported the UK entry. She also undermines the Cypriot entry calling it a cookie-cutter song and also explains how she forgot the fact that PM didn’t congratulate her 20 years ago, at least as openly as he did with Netta this year.

Dana International watched the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest from Moscow of all places. “To be honest, I didn’t really enjoy it,” says Dana about the viewing experience in a country that for the first time didn’t make it to the finals. “I reached the conclusion that when Israel is an almost certain favorite to win, and you want so much for it to happen, viewing the entire contest isn’t really an experience. You can’t really enjoy any song, you only want to see Netta and to get to the awarding of points already. “That part, the points, which is usually the nicest and most interesting part of the contest, was nerve-racking this time, tense and unbearable. In short, the evening ended amazingly for me, and filled me with happiness, but the entire three preceding hours were superfluous.”

Dana, who won the contest exactly 20 years ago with the song “Diva,” became a fan of Barzilai a month and a half ago, when she came to Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square in honor of the “Israel Calling” show, and declared that Barzilai would bring Eurovision back to Jerusalem. When asked if she really believed that Barzilai would win this year, she says: “When I first saw Netta, I fell in love with her. I was somewhat amused that they made a big deal of the looper, and all the excitement about it, as though the judges had just discovered a new musical invention. That looper was far less important than what they made of it, or than all the talent and charm and uniqueness that Netta brings with her.”

“Producer Yoav Tzafir, who since ‘The Next Star’ has become the biggest expert in Israel at deciphering the Eurovision contest, understood that the contest had entered a new phase and the familiar cookie-cutter songs – from Cyprus, for example – are less popular. On the other hand, a personal statement by an artist, which contains truth and uniqueness, would be more successful at capturing the audience. So already from the start it was clear that Netta has a strong suit, but only after I heard the song written for her by Doron and Stav [Doron Medalie and Stav Beger], which was as though they had sewn a made-to-measure haute couture outfit for her, I realized that there couldn’t be anything better. It was quite clear to me that Netta would win this year.

“I’m really happy that this time we were spared the talk and the moaning, explaining the lack of success and the criticism of us by blaming politics and anti-Semitism and that everyone is against us, excuses that were already in the pipeline. Moreover, it was demonstrated that there’s no truth to them. When we deserve to win, to succeed, to be embraced, it happens. It’s a fact.”

What did you feel when you saw Prime Minister Netanyahu congratulating Netta for winning? After you won, he didn’t say a word. “Look, it’s complicated. The insult of 20 years ago has long since melted away. Really, it was a different period, and it wasn’t even surprising. I admit that for a moment there may have bit a little twinge that reminded me of that insult, but it was so marginal within all this joy and pride about everything that’s happening, that it wasn’t really significant. Since then, incidentally, the establishment and the embassies, and the Foreign Ministry and the Tourism Ministry have turned me into a kind of ambassador, and someone of whom they’re very proud. So that I prefer to look at it as a victory over what used to be, and not to become mired in insults.”

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May 15 ➡️ the latest #Eurovision headlines

ICELAND 🇮🇸 Skarphéðinn Guðmundsson, Heead of RUV proogramming said that the country is most likely participating in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest and they are looking non the cost and location of the show rather than listening to some media asking to boycott the contest due to the “Jerusalem” issue. Let’s remember of course that in 1999 Iceland participated in Eurovision held in Jerusalem and actually Selma came 2nd bringing the first best place of the country in the contest.

RUSSIA 🇷🇺 Julia Samoylova, despite ranked 15ht in the second semi final and despite crying in the Green Room, spoke about her participation and the Eurovision Song Contest. She considers the Eurovision 2018 result as fair and she understands why she failed to quality: “I see a lot of mistakes, and that’s why I did not go to the final. I think that everything is fair, I do not see anything political, and there were many strong vocalists who did not qualify to the finals”.

UNITED KINGDOM 🇬🇧 UK representative SuRie spoke to ITV’s “This Morning” show about her stage presentation and stage invasion incident. “There’s a couple of bruises from where I was holding the mic. But I’m OK. There wasn’t any time to feel fear. He was suddenly there, security were on him as quick as he was on me, he got the mic for a few seconds, that was out of my hands, but the song was still going. The backing vocalists were still singing, the crowd was still chanting, so I just turned upstage for a moment but I was still clapping and cheering with the crowd, I just didn’t have the mic. I turned back and saw the mic on the floor, and I thought, ‘well that’s mine’, I’ll finish this song.”

ISRAEL 🇮🇱 Following the threats against Dana International back in 1999 ultra Orthodox Church is demanding for the organisers to respect the Sabbath and skip the dress rehearsals on Friday and Saturday next year, something which is of course impossible. The Sabbath will not ultimately affect the Grand Final which is starting at 22:00 local time on Saturday but affects the Jury Rehearsal on Friday. In 1999 this was skipped but back then there wasn’t such a time pressure nor semi finals system to impose such a tight schedule. EBU’s Frank-Dieter Freiling started that they are aware of the problem and will soon visit Israel to resolve the issue with the national broadcaster. EBU reminds all that European Broadcasting Union is discussing and negotiating with the national broadcaster and not with the government.

SWITZERLAND 🇨🇭 Despite reporting the lowest TV ratings sine Eurovision 2012, the country confirms that they will participate in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. SRF spokesperson Eva Wismer explained that: “The participation fees at the Eurovision Song Contest are dependent on the size of the country and here, of course, benefits small Switzerland – so we get for the ESC participation fee equal to three high-end broadcasts for our audience.” SRF pays 227,000 Francs to participate.

SPAIN 🇪🇸 Will Spain use Operación Triunfo as selection method for 2019? Well it’s still unknown and will probably take months until RTVE decides but the auditions for the 2018 edition kicks off on July 10th in Madrid. Auditions for OT 2017 will be held throughout Spain; Madrid, Barcelona, Donostia, Alicante, Tenerife, Seville, Malaga, Vigo, Mallorca and Valencia. The rules of the competition will be published on TVE’s official website tomorrow. No matter what the TV ratings due to Alfred and Amaia were high.

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🇮🇱 Watch our footage from Rabin square: Netta performs “Toy” at welcome back concert

Thanks to Michael Shmaytser, oikotimes.com was on the spot to celebrate with Israeli fans. Netta was welcomed back as the 4th Eurovision Song Contest winner for Israel and if course she gave a blasting performance of “Toy” which we recorded it. Doron Medalie and Izhar Cohen were on stage continuing the show afterwards. It is clear now that Jerusalem and not Tel Aviv will host the 64th Eurovision Song Contest edition but Tel Aviv is still celebrating. More than 50,000 people attended the celebrations.

At the tail end of a day of deadly clashes in Gaza and the tense relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, Rabin Square filled with flag-draped fans and girls sporting Barzilai’s trademark Mickey Mouse buns. The crowd threw up their hands and danced every 10 minutes, when the winning song, “Toy,” blasted from the speakers before and after Barzilai’s quick appearance.

“Tel Aviv, I love you! Look what we did together!” an emotional Barzilai told the crowd, songwriters Doron Medley and Stav Berger alongside her onstage. “Look at everyone together! We have such a reason to be happy!”

source: Times of Israel

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🇮🇱 Netta returns to Israel and receives heroes welcome

ISRAEL 🇮🇱 Netta Barzilai and the victorious Israeli delegation to the 63rd Eurovision Song Contest took the stage in Tel Aviv’s main square Monday for a special and free performance in honor of her historic win at the competition with her hit song “Toy”.

At a short press conference held after she landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport on the plane, Barzilai said: “This is a great moment for me, for the [Israeli] delegation and for the country. I am happy that we managed to create a reason for joy in a country that does not have a lot of reasons to celebrate.”

“We are all hoarse, we celebrated all night and we didn’t sleep,” added Barzilai. “I want to thank to all the amazing people who accompanied me throughout this past half year, they never lost hope and promised me all along the way that victory was ours. A lot of congratulations to us and all of Israel.”

The delegations came down from the plane dancing to the music of the winning song “Toy.”

Barzilai will perform her song on Monday evening in a performance in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv.

Barzilai won the Eurovision with 529 points, with the song from Cyprus, “Fuego,” sung by Eleni Foureira, coming in second with 436 points. Austria came in third with 342 points.

Thousands came out in Tel Aviv in Rabin Square to celebrate Saturday night after the victory, while hundreds came to celebrate in the Mahaneh Yehuda Market in Jerusalem. Lights on Tel Aviv City Hall spelled out “Toy.”

Barzilai, 25, is the fourth Israeli to win the Eurovision contest. The previous Israeli to win was Dana International in 1998 with the song “Diva.” The first Israeli winner was Yizhar Cohen in 1978 with “Abanibi.” The next year Israel won once again with “Hallelujah,” sung by Gali Atari and Milk and Honey.

The broadcast of the contest had a 35 percent rating on channel Kan 11, which translates into just over 1 million viewers – the highest rating in Israel since November 2017 when Channel 2 split into two separate broadcasters.

The live Eurovision broadcasts in Israel on social networks, such as on public broadcaster Kan’s Facebook page, drew about 750,000 viewers. “Toy” has already racked up over 50 million views on the internet.

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