The Next Star for Eurovision 2018 — Israel’s seemingly endless national selection for its Eurovision Song Contest star — continued this week with the last auditions. In this week’s episodes, we got to meet another selection of contestants, from a Moroccan group to a street singer. As ever, we’re going to take a look at the lucky ones who passed their auditions and will continue to the next phase of the show.
You can watch all of the auditions (including the ones from eliminated artists) at this link. And if you need a reminder of the rules, just click here.
THE LAST QUALIFIERS
Shusha Mansour
Shusha, 25, works as a cosmetician as well as a singer.
She has been singing since she was a little girl, but only in the last couple of years she has become known as a professional singer.
Her special voice and singing style really impressed the judges and the audience during her audition.
However, in quite a rare coincidence, while getting all of the judges’ votes, the audience didn’t give her a high enough score, as she was 2% behind the bar that will let her pass her audition.
But thanks to the hosts — who can save contestants during the auditions phase this year — she was saved by them.
Audition score: 68% (votes from four judges) – Saved by the hosts
Michael Dahan
Michael, 35, divorced and a father of four, is quite shy and nervous when he is not singing.
The hosts had to relax him during his interview before his audition.
He used to work with at-risk youth, but for the past two years he has been playing his guitar and his piano while singing to the public on the streets of Jerusalem.
His modesty and sensitivity came across during his audition, as most of the judges (except for the judge Assaf Amdursky) and the audience fell for his soft voice and magical singing.
Harel Skaat even said that he had the same reaction when he watched Salvador Sobral at Eurovision.
Audition score: 71% (votes from three judges)
“Tánger”
This Moroccan group is all about joy and happiness. That’s why you can usually find them performing at weddings and special events.
They started their performance with a ballad verse which then became an uptempo party number.
The hosts, the audience and most of the judges were dancing and clapping, but yet only Static & Ben El Tavori voted for Tánger.
The hosts — who can save contestants during the auditions phase this year — pressed the special “Save” button and helped the group pass their audition, despite their low score of 49%.
Audition score: 49% (votes from one judge) – Saved by the hosts
Michael Kobrin
Michael, 26, was Israel’s boxing champion at the age of 12 thanks to his father, who is a professional boxing coach.
Michael decided a few years later to quit boxing as he fell in love with his guitar.
During his audition, he surprised everyone with his low bass voice while passing his audition easily with a very respectable score of 88%.
Audition score: 88% (votes from four judges)
Nofar Haber
Nofar, 20, is a platoon sergeant in the Israeli army.
As a teenager, she used to sing in her city’s class band.
Nofar tried to step into the huge shoes of Adele during her audition, which didn’t work out that well for her.
Yet, at the end of her audition, judge Keren Peles decided to give her a “Yes” vote and saved her from a failure.
Audition score: 72% (votes from two judges)
THE NEXT ROUND
A total of 70 contestants have made it through the auditions (71 to be exact, but Liat Banay decided to withdraw due to her busy schedule, about a week after she passed her audition). You can read all about them in our previous posts.
In the upcoming episodes we’ll get to know who are the lucky 20 contestants that have made the cut to the real competition.
In case you missed any of the previous episodes, you can watch all of the qualifying performances and read quick reviews in our recap posts.
Which artist do you like the most so far? Who do you think would do well for Israel at Eurovision?
READ MORE ISRAEL EUROVISION NEWS
Photo credits: The Next Star for Eurovision
All they need is a song. This whole show is just pointless.
Being honest, I don’t see any difference from one of those singing competitions (X Factor, The Voice), and for Kiyv they didn’t pick a very good vocalist. This formula won’t work forever…
They use Rising Star show to select their Eurovision act which is indeed a singing competition like The Voice, Idol, or X Factor
boooring. And Lithuania’s is coming soon… (facepalm)
What’s exactly the point of letting 70 contestants trough when in reality only 20 will make the cut?
What’s the point in selecting so many contestants (70) when they could have picked 20 from the beginning… This whole process is too long and exhausting, just like the one in Lithuania….