If it ain’t broke, then no need to fix it. Israel has decided to return to their former format when it comes to selecting their Eurovision entrant, which will be through the talent show “HaKokhav HaBa” which translates to “The Next Star“.
Return of HaKokhav HaBa
The talent show, is an Israeli produced show which made it’s debut back in late 2013. Already starting from the second season of the show, the winning prize would become the honor of representing Israel at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest.
Since then, the show has granted the Eurovision audience their very own golden boy, when Nadav Guedj represented the country in 2015. The talent show has afterwards given Europe names such as Hovi Star, Imri Ziv, Kobi Marimi, Eden Alene and even another Eurovision winner, which is Netta, who won it all in 2018 with the song “Toy“.
In the years the talent show was used to select the Eurovision entrant, it only garnered Israel a place in the finals, so for 2024, hopefully this might continue as well.
The talent show still ran, even when it wasn’t used for selecting an artist for Eurovision, but with seasons being pushed to air during the summer/fall months, rather than in the winter months. With the show being confirmed to once again offer artists a shot at the Eurovision Song Contest, it is expected that the show will go back to airing in the winter months.
For 2023, Israel was represented Noa Kirel and her song “Unicorn“. The singer was internally selected last summer, giving her multiple months to prepare for Eurovision, which proved to pay very well off. She managed to impress the juries enough to score 177 points and finish 2nd with them, as well as impressing the televoters to score 185 points. Combined, she could celebrate her 3rd place finish with a total of 362 points.
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