Israel Calling tel aviv recap

Opening night was Riga. The second stop was London. And last night the Eurovision Preview party spotlight fell on tantalising Tel Aviv, where over the past four days, 28 acts from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest visited historic Jerusalem, topped up their tans by the pool in preparation for Eurovision’s Next Top Model Cycle 7, and planted trees at the Eurovision forest. 

But y’all: This is not the Eurovision Best Friend Contest and last night the acts took to the stage at Israel Calling 2017 to show off the songs they’ll compete with at Eurovision 2017 in Kyiv this May.

Homeboy Imri Ziv performed banger “I Feel Alive” for the first time, Armenia’s Artsvik served up experimental artpop with “Fly With Me” and Ireland’s Brendan Murray brought Celtic moods with his ballad “Dying To Try”. But who had the best performance?

You can watch all of our videos to make up your mind and then vote in the poll below. You can vote for as many of your baes as you like, but you can only vote once, so make your it count. Be sure to click the box next to every act you want to show some sugar before you click sumbit!

Israel Calling 2017: Show Recap and review

Israel Calling 2017: All Performances

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Natalia
Natalia
7 years ago

The best for me: Poland, Bulgaria, Austria, Georgia (surprisingly cause I don’t like the song) and Slovenia (same as Georgia).
I still think that Blanche’s song is sooo boring and her vocals isn’t very good.
Performances I didn’t enjoy was: Belgium, Macedonia and Lithuania.
I enjoyed the rest of performances and I have to say that I really like Montenegro’s and Moldova’s songs.

Escaddict
Escaddict
7 years ago

Austria & Israel brought excitement & energy to the stage. They were the best IMO.

CallMe
CallMe
7 years ago

It’s a pity that Francesco and Salvador didn’t go! 🙁

Check my top 10 in youtube:
https://youtu.be/xCUkXGA-v6k

Piotr
Piotr
7 years ago

I go with francesco. levina has a strong voice and she’s damn hot. hope she will do fine in the grand final.

Kevin
Kevin
7 years ago

Poland and Kasia Mos is amazing!!!Diva!???

Francesco
Francesco
7 years ago

Germany amazed me a lot. It wasn’t even in my top 25. But Levina is getting stronger and stronger. Very strong vocals and she is very beautiful. Maybe a top 15 in the end???

Eve
Eve
7 years ago

@ Luke- Nathan is a pleasent surprise for me! Great guy, composer of his song, good voice, he worked very well with a capella singing, he should qualify!

Frank
Frank
7 years ago

Auto correct is a bitch and I should check my spelling before I press send:-)

Deserves instead of deserteurs(which is a terrible word in dutch)
And Alma from France:-)

Frank
Frank
7 years ago

I was in the club in Tel Aviv and to Nathan from Austria had the best energy and was vocally very strong. A shame he does not get the attention that he deserteurs, such a positive, sexy and good singer.
Lama from France was very shacky and she can’t move.
The most opstanding act was Liana Park from Latvia. There is something very special about this girl and Latvia maybe will do even better the previous two years….

Luke
Luke
7 years ago

I want every ballad in the final this year as they are all so amazing and sung with real intent, I would love Austria to qualify as well since Nathan is my number 1 this year

james burje
james burje
7 years ago

everyone here is deaf and they just write a load of rubbish
the only singer that could actually sing was brendan murray the rest just rubbish
hopefully russia will be banned and ukraine next followed by serbia and the rest of those countries in east that block vote along with half the biased people here
bye bye RUSSIA

handymon
handymon
7 years ago
Reply to  james burje

I agree, I really feel Brendan will prove people wrong on the night, his live vocals are superb and he’ll blow a lot of the other acts completely out of the water!

Kelly
Kelly
7 years ago

Best: Poland, Georgia, Bulgaria, Denmark
Worst: Belgium, Macedonia & Lithuania.

oldschool
oldschool
7 years ago

@hebbuz, it’s only your dirty brain which is playbacking, you have so bad tastes, I complain you

Kris
Kris
7 years ago

I watched the live stream and felt that Spain Slovenia and Georgia didn’t get great reactions from the Crowd .

Alex
Alex
7 years ago

Belarus was AMAZING!!!! 😀

fvdf
fvdf
7 years ago

i liked Kasia

Hebbuzz
Hebbuzz
7 years ago

worst: ireland, israel, belgium serbia, sweden and playbacking france

best: austria, denmark, romania, poland, slovenia

from Romania
from Romania
7 years ago

best: Danemark, Poland, France
worst: Israel, FYR Macedonia, Belgium

Mary
Mary
7 years ago

Just almost agree with poll who was the best this evening : POLAND (again), FRANCE , DENMARK, GEORGIA,MALTA, ROMANIA, BULGARIA, SWITZERLAND,ARMENIA,BELGIUM,SWEDEN

ongot
ongot
7 years ago

poland and danemark

CBCB
CBCB
7 years ago

K A S I A

Nikos
Nikos
7 years ago

I have to agree with others, the sound quality there sounded terrible across the board. Perhaps that room was too echoey also? Anyways, judging just by performance: GREAT: Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, France, Georgia, San Marino, Switzerland GOOD: Denmark, Germany, Malta, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia (surprised me), Sweden Ireland was painful for me, Israel too. I was also disappointed by Serbia. I won’t judge too hard cause again, there were so many sound/earpiece problems last night! Armenia was underwhelming for me, it’s going to need amazing staging to fill all that empty space. I also thought Lithuania was somehow worse than… Read more »

Lukewarm
Lukewarm
7 years ago

Nathan was good. Could be a dark horse.

Justin K.
7 years ago

Listening through with earphones, Jana actually had great vocals for the song—in order to replicate the compressed sound we get in the studio version, we just have to wait for the right backing singers. Granted it’s Macedonia and they’ve made some dodgy decisions before, but there’s still hope for them to pull something amazing out of their hat for Kyiv. I’m still thinking it’ll be Macedonia’s best finish at the end of the day. Kristian (Bulgaria) and Nathan (Austria) are also really strong. Bulgaria’s probably guaranteed–I’m just hoping Nathan’s charm is enough to pull Austria into the Final for the… Read more »

Peter
Peter
7 years ago

Austria, Moldova, France and Poland. I am disgusting about Israel, Macedonia and Serbia 🙁

YurijBLR
YurijBLR
7 years ago

I think Kasia was definitely the best last night, strong vocal, she’s also very beautiful. Poland is as always underrated and will be next year a dark horse. Moreover Moldova, France and Armenia was really good!

Comi
Comi
7 years ago

A L M A

Leaf
Leaf
7 years ago

I don’t like Omar’s song but these polls really don’t mean anything when you have Imri before him with the score/votes.
Proves that It’s all random cos everything will change in May.

Irma
Irma
7 years ago

everyone just votes for their favourite song but not the best performance…

Mar
Mar
7 years ago

Kasia, Alma, Kristian and Miruna really brought it with the vocals, but we all already knew that. Artsvik was spectacular, way better than the studio version, and Nathan combined great vocals with amazing stage presence and charisma. On the other hand, Imri and Tijana were flops, they completely failed not only the high notes but basically every other note as well. Jana should have just stuck to her playback because her live vocals were painful to listen to. The verses were so nasal and she sounded out of breath during the chorus. She’s gonna have to pull a Samra and… Read more »

Zebb
Zebb
7 years ago

The videos are so bad at sound, it’s even pity for a so broadly organised event. Why didn’t they use a better venue? Was mostly interested in Serbia but got confused. She did cute version of song when she sang with her husband, but here it was almost unrecognizable. Yeah, there was some power apparently. Alma was still very good, Blanche gained confidence and Sunstroke were a very good openers. Israeli’s guy was rather out somehow and Jowst was a bit shaky, sadly. The next intent pit stop through glasses is Hungary for me. I keep my faith for him… Read more »

D
D
7 years ago

Sweden were great!

JAK
JAK
7 years ago

GEORGIA BULGARIA POLAND AND FRANCE THE BEST LIVE

Nickfan
Nickfan
7 years ago

Bulgaria, France, Poland and Denmark were the best !

nicky
nicky
7 years ago

Sweden is planning great things this year, sending Robin everywhere, you will see, after all, other countries have won even when they were hosting, so why would people be surprised to see Sweden win again?

PROM QUEEN
PROM QUEEN
7 years ago

Kris slayed<3 Go Bulgaria!

YoungsterJoey
YoungsterJoey
7 years ago

Kasia may be a strong dark horse. I’ve rarely seen her outside the Top 10 of people’s favorites (again, rare to be outside that) and polling well in polls. Hopefully she doesn’t get an awful draw for the Final.

nicky
nicky
7 years ago

@Milla ”I don’t know why exactly. Everything feels a bit off. Or is it just me?”

ESC is supposed to be a big/colorful event. Everything is fine.

Eve
Eve
7 years ago

@ Hada- That’s because William wasn’t there, he knows the best how to present and lead others to stick to the plan of talking !

Monifa
Monifa
7 years ago

Why so many haters? It was a nice party, except Irleand (really was not that good reaching the high notes) the rest were pretty good! I enjoyed most of the performances, considering the many technical problems. I was blown away by Switzerland, she was the best vocalist! I know many said Poland was the best, but…near the end she had some weird notes. I also enjoyed Bulgaria and the cheerful Denmark and France. Great interaction with the audience – Austria, Norway, Romania and Belarus. Moldova made quit a show, very energetic performance by Sunstroke Project. I’m not a fan of… Read more »

Milla
Milla
7 years ago

@nicky
I don’t know why exactly. Everything feels a bit off. Or is it just me?

DragKvinna
DragKvinna
7 years ago

DANA INT was the bests that’s 4srrr

DiYana Burcheska of Wales
DiYana Burcheska of Wales
7 years ago

Jana was the best

nicky
nicky
7 years ago

@Milla : I feel all of a sudden that it’s a bad year.

You are from Sweden, right? Why would you feel it’s a bad year, when Sweden in doing more promotion than ever?

nicky
nicky
7 years ago

@underground : No, Princess is not enough,,,, QUEEN ALMA!!!

Actually…the ultimate I guess is Goddess.

AngieP
AngieP
7 years ago

From the artists we haven’t watched live in London:
Artsvik, Tamara, Sunstroke Project and Timebelle were amazing!!

Alma slayed once more! Go girl!
And Blanche has improved since London! I loved the performance!
I also believe Jana was singing live this time. She was pretty good!

Hada
Hada
7 years ago

Some constructive criticism: I know there were a lot of acts, but this recap/review was so disorganized. You guys talked way too much about Dana International, the kids from JESC, the sound, the crowd, etc… that’s nice to know, but the reason people watch your videos is to see your thoughts on the current acts, and some of those acts weren’t even mentioned. For example, you didn’t say a thing about Israel, and HE WAS THE HOME PERFORMER (I get why, that screech was painful, but still). You had the program and eveything, you could’ve read each act in other… Read more »

anonymous91
anonymous91
7 years ago

@God-Emperor

that’s your opinion of course, but Yodel It is to me a crowd-pleasing song, at least this was the case in London and now here in Tel Aviv, that the crowd was cheering and waving along with them

i love how energetic Ilinca and Alex are, and this song is a shout out for getting out of a comfortable bubble and try something new 🙂

Milla
Milla
7 years ago

I feel all of a sudden that it’s a bad year.

Giorgios
Giorgios
7 years ago

Suicidal ballads (Malta, Finland, Czech Republic, Georgia, Albania and so on) are not my cup of tea! I prefere energy, fun and dance. Eurovision is a big party, not a funeral… I was in the crowd and I enjoyed the acts from Moldova, Norway, Romania and Belarus. Great interaction with the audience, especially Belarus and Romania! I hope we’ll have as many up-tempo acts as possible in the Final!