shir-and-tim-junior-eurovision-israel-2016

This year Junior Eurovision is filled mostly with solo female performers.

But Israel — the 15th country to reveal — is mixing things up with a girl-boy duet, the first and only one of the year, in the form of the duo Shir & Tim.

The duo — comprised of 13-year-olds Shira Frieman and TimoTi Sannikov — have a surprising amount of experience, which helped them emerge victorious following a truly nation-wide search for talent, led by Mrs. Aliza Dayan-Hamama, the head of the Israeli delegation to Junior Eurovision and the Department of Children and Youth. She worked closely with renown producer Tali Eshkoli — one of the geniuses behind the Israel Calling event held in Tel-Aviv last April.

Children from across the country attended auditions, held in the beginning of October. The children were selected by a professional committee composed of representatives from Israel’s Federation of Community Centers, the Culture Managers Association, the Ministry of Education, IBA, artists and composers including Liron Lev, Dor Daniel, Omer Zimri and others.

Their song is yet-to-be revealed. But surely the boy-girl nature of this will help it stand out. And we know Israel is taking this very seriously, having consulted with some of the country’s top composers to work with their children.

They ultimately went with proclaimed song writer Mr. Noam Horev (who also wrote the lyrics for Israel’s Eurovision 2010 entry) and the composer Dor Daniel, who will also be in charge of musical production.

Their song is called “Follow My Heart” and an official promo video clip is being planned and filmed as we write.

About Shir & Tim

Shir hails from Atzmon-Segev and attends school in Galilee. She’s played the saxophone for three years and enjoys dancing to jazz, so perhaps we’ll see her fancy footwork on stage in Malta.

She’s already a known figure, as she participated in the third season of Music School — Israel’s prime time TV singing competition for children. The show exposed her to some of the country’s top musicians and artists.

“While participating in the show I learned I am able to face even difficult challenges, and always stick to what I think is true,” she says.

And if her face isn’t familiar, her voice surely will be. She has done extensive dubbing work for films including the Hebrew version of Disney’s Finding Dory.

Multi-talented and ready to slay, she knows the world is her oyster and is keeping her options open: “I actually don’t know what I’ll do when I grow up, but I’m sure music will always be part of me.”

Tim hails from Bat Yam and studies at the Israeli-French school Mikve Israel. In addition to Hebrew and French, he speaks Russian and English and can sing in EIGHT different languages.

A student of both the piano and organ, he also writes and composes songs, takes professional voice lessons and dances across several genres including breakdance, classic, freestyle and tap dancing. Whew!

He’s also a veteran of music festivals and televised singing contests, including Being A Star and Family Performance on Channel 24 and international competitions such New Wave Junior and the Slavic Bazaar. He’s currently competing on Ukraine’s The Voice Kids.

As of June 2016, TimoTi is part of the cast of the Israeli production of the musical Billy Elliot. He plays the character of Billy’s best friend, Michael. The rehearsals took about 10 months, and the show is a huge commercial hit in Israel.

Besides the performing arts, TimoTi enjoys playing soccer, swimming, climbing walls and going on family trips. “But most of all I love to sing and dance, be on stage and entertain the crowd in front of me.”

Shir &Tim’s Offical Social media accounts:

Read more Junior Eurovision 2016 news

17 Comments
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Erin
Erin
7 years ago

The timeline suggests that auditions took less than 3 weeks and that the duo was selected a few days ago, so one wonders if it’s fitting to artificially pair two individuals without any prior collaboration when there are only 3-4 weeks to go. It all sounds very rushed! Judging by the material on the net, it’s clear that TimoTi is more than ready to do this on his own. Shira’s Youtube appearance is at least 2 years old, so it’s hard to say what she sounds like today and whether she actually owns the stage. It’s suggested that the song… Read more »

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
7 years ago

@ Klaris – we didn’t have any impact on the choices of the performers, did we? If you don’t like female vocals, don’t watch the JESC this year I guess. A true reverse warholian experience. Stay mad.

Klaris
Klaris
7 years ago

Polegend, jesc fanatic, try to watch any Woman contest if u like only female voices and don’t watch ESC. But let us other to listen different voices, male, female and combined to choose the better one. Your tastes are really very limited.

(J)ESC Fanatic
(J)ESC Fanatic
7 years ago

@Polegend Godgarina

I agree, women tend to have better voices than men.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
7 years ago

I’m honestly happy about the amount of females this year because I prefer female voices (even though Bo’az Ma’uda has one of the best voices of all time for me). Excited to hear what Israel brings to us!

(J)ESC Fanatic
(J)ESC Fanatic
7 years ago

@Name

Shut your mouth, dear. Misogynists don’t have the right to comment.

It’s clear everyone loves pop music but they are lying because they don’t want to accept it.

So keep lying to yourself and to everyone while you are listening to Bieber tunes on your bed… but be careful because they might take notice of you and understand what your real opinion is. 😉

Eva M.
Eva M.
7 years ago

This sounds very promising. Another country, which takes JESC very seriously. I can’t wait to hear “Follow the Heart”. Great choices for Israel so far:-)

Name
Name
7 years ago

Jesc fanatic, we know you have bad taste and you want to destroy Esc with 40 solo female pop, but believe, you are the only one, because every person wants to have colourful and diverse competition with male singers, female, duos and bands and many genres like rock, pop, hip hop, world music, dnb etc because its more interesting and it is magic of this competition. So be quiet with your opinions from 15th century.

Lanna
Lanna
7 years ago

Did you see that Greta Salóme reacted to Vasilije Ojdanic’s song Perfume? 🙂

(J)ESC Fanatic
(J)ESC Fanatic
7 years ago

Jesus Christ, it looks like sexism stats are increasing again!

The reaction of most people when a girl is selected:

“OMG, this year (J)ESC is going to be awful! Nobody likes a contest with girls, blah, blah, blah…”

The reaction if countries sent only boys:

“Oh, great!”

Or they just wouldn’t nag.
It’s obvious they don’t want females to succeed in their lives.

Shame on you all! Keep your misogynistic opinions to the 15th century, where they belong!

DenizNL
DenizNL
7 years ago

Just glad that their will be another boy on the stage. I don’t want JESC to turn into some girly barbiefest, I want it to be diverse, fun and for cool for everyone.

blue
blue
7 years ago

‘There song is called “Follow My Heart” and an official promo video clip is being planned and filmed as we write.’

*their

Jeffrey
Jeffrey
7 years ago

haha, love the excitement over a male singer. it is definitely female heavy!!!

Roelof Meesters
Roelof Meesters
7 years ago

I know, but their result was too low for their great song. (And now you are using the frowning face)

beccaboo1212
7 years ago

Roelof Meesters: “I hope Israel can do better than in 2012.”

Me: “Aw, but I loved Kids.il! 🙁 “

jesc
jesc
7 years ago

Thanx God we have new boy. And he will sing in duo. Perfect!

Roelof Meesters
Roelof Meesters
7 years ago

YAY! third boy, i hope Israel can do better than in 2012