Most of you will recall just a few weeks back , when we at Eurovision Ireland started to put together our highs and lows at Eurovision for each country participating in the contest this year. Having taken a break from this to enable us to provide you with our usual full coverage of this year’s contest in Liverpool, we at Eurovision Ireland didn’t want you to think we’d forgotten to look at the countries we hadn’t got round to then. So today, we are going to continue our series where we left off and take a look at Israel’s Highs and Lows at Eurovision.

Highs

Israel joined the contest in 1973, when Llanit represented them with the song “Ey Sham”. They have been quite successful in the contest since their debut . Of their Highs so far, have been four wins :

Win 1 : Paris 1978 “Izhar Cohen & the Alpha Beta ” A-ba-ni-bi “

In 1978 , Israel achieved their first win at the contest in Paris, France when Izhar Cohen and the Alpha Beta sang the country to victory with their catchy song “A-ba-ni -bi “

Win 2 : Jerusalem 1979 Gali Atari & Milk & Honey ” Hallelujah “

In 1979,Gali Atari and Milk and Honey succeeded in getting a back to back win for Israel on home soil in Jerusalem , with a song that is still played at many Eurovision functions today, “Hallelujah”.

Win 3 -Birmingham 1998 Dana International “Diva”

Dana International sang Israel to victory in Birmingham , with the song “Diva”, giving Israel their 3rd win .

Win 4 -Lisbon 2018 Netta “Toy”

Netta started as the favourite to win in Lisbon and she achieved Israel’s 4th win in Lisbon, Portugal with the uptempo song “Toy”, beating Cyprus into second place.

Israel have also come second on two occasions . The first time in 1982 when Avi Toledano represented his country at the contest in Harrogate , United Kingdom with the lively song “Hora”.

The following year 1983, in Munich, Ofra Haza also took Israel to the runners up spot with “Chai”.With strong , meaningful lyrics,the song still remains popular with many Eurovision fans today and there are still some who feel that Israel deserved the victory that year .

Israel have also come third on two occasions . In 1991 Duo Datz performed their song “Kan” in Rome .

The second third place happened right this year in Liverpool , when Noa Kirel sang Unicorn , which combined singing with dance .

Israel’s Lows at Eurovision

You have to go back to 2007 for Israel’s worst result to date when they came 24th in the Semi Final in Helsinki with the Teapacks and their song “Push the button”.

Israel also went through a four year period of non -qualification from their semi final . Ironically, this started in 2011 when former winner Dana International returned to represent Israel in Dusseldorf, Germany with the song “Ding Dong”

In 2012 Izabo with the song “Time” also failed to make it to the Grand Final .

Unfortunately it was not third time lucky for Israel in 2013 in Malmo when Moran Mozar failed to qualify for the final with the song “Rak Bishvilo”.

In 2014 , despite being much fancied to get through to the final in Copenhagen, Mei Finegold failed to get Israel through , despite a solid performance of her song ” Same Heart “.

Israel also failed to qualify in 2004 when David D’Or failed to qualify from the first ever Eurovision Semi final in Istanbul, with “Leha’amin”.

They did so again in 2022 when Michael Ben David sand “I.M” in Turin.

So that’s it for the Highs and Lows of Israel at Eurovision. What do you think? Are there any that we’ve missed that you would have liked to have seen? Let us know what you think by dropping us a line in our comments box and you can also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Author: Sarah Rudman

Source: Eurovision.TV , Eurovision Gold,You Tube.