To mark the occasion of Israel being the host nation this year and to bridge the gap between now and the festivities beginning in Tel Aviv, it's time to have ourselves a competition to discover the best Israeli eurovision song of all time. Because Israel have got a plethora of gems in their back catalogue from disco to pop stompers to the signature Israeli power ballads. Plus, you'll come to see, a good helping of the downright weird! They're members of the very exclusive "winning while hosting" club, they have the record for most participations without ever coming last (we'll see if they still have that record next year!) they gave Eurovision its first trans winner in 1998 and, owing to their unique place in world history and political geography, controversy is usually never very far away from them. You'll find many songs here with layered meanings about the state of Israel/the Jewish people's survival, rallying feminist chicken noises, pleas for world peace and understanding, actual Hebrew prayer songs and one song telling us to "BE HAPPY!"

1985: Izhar Cohen - Ole, Ole

Now since there's a lot of songs to get through, we're gonna be voting using the "18 points" system which, if you aren't familiar, works like this

18 - your favourite
15
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1 - your fifteenth favourite

PM me your votes by close of play/23:59 GMT Friday 12th April - i.e. "Brexit Day". Results will come at some point that weekend/early the next week.

Ooh yes!

 

For ones among the non-obvious, you guys better not sleep on Amen. It's heavenly and I know that's the most groanworthy way to describe it but just listen to it!

 

I also suspect among the ones I'm not so familiar with (mostly lesser known 70s/80s ones) there's potential for some really good ones because I love a good narrative/message song and Israel rarely lack for that.

'Amen' really is a masterstroke of "YOU WILL VOTE FOR THIS!" balladry.

 

The flipside of that is probably "Light A Candle" which is basically every criticism you could level at Russia's post ~p r o b l e m a t i c~ world event entries but without a Scandi songwriter on hand to make it at least a passable song.

anyone not voting for HaSheket SheNish'ar will be getting a STERN TALKING TO

Same Heart better not be done as dirty as it was in the actual contest....

In light of receiving ZERO votes for this so far (deadline's extended u lazy bitches), how would people feel about a potential plug session of all of these?