Mabrouk to Netta Barzilai, Israel’s winning contestant in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. From her surname, Netta is of Mizrahi origin. She is the latest of a string of Mizrahi entrants.
In 1978, Israel won 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 and in 1998 with “Diva” performed by Dana International.
Since the introduction of semi-finals in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, Israel has
managed to qualify for the final seven times, including three top ten results in 2005 with Shiri Maimon and “Hasheket Shenish’ar” placing fourth, in 2008 with Boaz and “The Fire In Your Eyes” placing ninth, and in 2015 with Nadav Guedj and “Golden Boy” placing ninth. Israel had failed to qualify to the final for four consecutive years between 2011 and 2014 prior to qualifying in 2015. In 2017, Imri Ziv represented Israel in Kyiv, Ukraine with the song “I Feel Alive“. It came 23rd out of 26 in the final.
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