The Next Star for Eurovision 2018 — Israel’s seemingly endless national selection for its Eurovision Song Contest star — continued this week with more musical duels.

Following last week’s dramatic withdrawal of Rinat Bar and this week’s duels, we are now down to the final nine artists. Producers announced that the grand final will take place in three weeks, though they are waiting to reveal the exact date and other details. Scroll down to find out who is still in the race to represent Israel at Eurovision 2018 in Lisbon.

Producers divided the remaining contestants into themed duels. In each duel the first artist sang in front of the judges and the audience. Their combined rating set the bar for their opponent.

The voting process went as usual: each judge voted yay or nay, with a yay awarding the contestant a score of 10%. The audience in the TV studio voted in a similar way via a special smartphone application and the scores were added together during the performance.

The opposing artist then sang behind a screen. If the opposing artist managed to beat the score of the first artist, then the screen rose up, signalling that the second artist had won the duel. If not, the first artist won.

In our previous post we reviewed the first batch of duels and we’ll now review the others, which were broadcast on Sunday.

Episode 24

As judge Assaf Amdursky had other obligations at the time of filming, a special judge was called in to join the panel — Nadav Guedj. You might have heard of him.

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Duel 1: Sarit Hativa VS. Adva Omer (a duet with Dudu Aharon)


Sarit Hativa – “Hagoral Haze” (This destiny) – Score: 53% (votes from two judges)

Adva Omer – “Hashir Shelach” (Your Song) – Score: 83% (votes from four judges)

Duel 2: Eden Meiri VS. Netta Barzilai (party mission)

Eden Meiri – “Enatzel” (I’ll be saved) – Score: 56% (votes from two judges)

Netta Barzilai – Mashup (“Ein Li Kesef”, “Papi Chulo”, “Sing Hallelujah”, “Hachayim Shelanu Tutim”) – Score: 73% (votes from four judges)

Duel 3: Chen Aharoni VS. Jonathan Mergui (a cover of an Omer Adam song)

Chen Aharoni – “Sheket” (Quiet) – Score: 71% (votes from three judges)

Jonathan Mergui – “Basof Hakol Holef” (At The End It all Passes) – Score: 62% (votes from two judges)

Second Chance

In the second chance duel, the losers of the main duels sang another song, and the two contestants with the highest score in this round got to advance to the next round (the act with the lowest score got eliminated).

Sarit Hativa – “Malkat Halevavot” (The Queen of Hearts) – Score: 30% (votes from one judge)

Eden Meiri – “Elohai” (My God) – Score: 80% (votes from three judges)

Jonathan Mergui – “Love Yourself” – Score: 89% (votes from four judges)

Sarit Hativa was eliminated due to her lowest score in this duel, while Eden Meiri and Jonathan Mergui were saved.

Episode 25

The special duels continued in the following episode on Monday night, with judge Assaf Amdursky returning to the judging panel.

Duel 1: Chen Aharoni & Jonathan Mergui VS. Eden Meiri & Adva Omer (duets duel)

Chen Aharoni & Jonathan Mergui – “Locked Out of Heaven” – Score: 92% (votes from four judges)

Eden Meiri & Adva Omer – “Yesh Bi Ahava” (There’s a Love Within Me) – Score: 66% (votes from three judges)

Duel 2: Jose Steinberg VS. Riki Ben Ari (my idol cover)

Jose Steinberg – “Thinking Out Loud” – Score: 53% (votes from one judge)

Riki Ben Ari – “Simply The Best” – Score: 64% (votes from three judges)

Duel 3: Ravit Batashvili VS. Shay and Gilad (a party song)

Ravit Batashvili – “Tel Aviv” – Score: 74% (votes from three judges)

Shay and Gilad – “Kos Shel Yain” (A Glass of Wine) – Score: 36% (votes from 0 judges)

Duel 4: Howie Danao VS. Netta Barzilai (a surprising dedication)

Howie Danao – “Hero” – Score: 69% (votes from two judges)

Netta Barzilai – “What Is Love” – Score: 79% (votes from four judges)

Second Chance

Out of the five losers of the main duels, the judges picked three contestants that they wanted to save, and they are: Adva OmerEden Meiri and Howie Danao.

The remaining acts, Jose Steinberg and Shay and Gilad (“The Yamanz”), competed in the final duel for the last save of the night:

Shay and Gilad (“The Yamanz”) – “Nachon Lehayom” (As Of Today) – Score: 28% (votes from 0 judges)

Jose Steinberg – “Algo Especial” – Score: 82% (votes from three judges)

Shay and Giled (“The Yamanz”) were eliminated due to their low score in this duel and Jose Steinberg was the last contestant saved.

The 9 remaining hopefuls

Which artist do you like the most in the competition? Who do you think would do well for Israel at Eurovision?

READ MORE ISRAEL EUROVISION NEWS

Photo credits: Ronen Akerman / The Next Star for Eurovision

13 Comments
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jonolasand
jonolasand
6 years ago

Chen is the clear winner.

gili
gili
6 years ago
Reply to  jonolasand

no he is not…neta does(:

Miguel
Miguel
6 years ago

Such a complex system just to choose the singer…
If they were choosing the song instead it would make sense. Losing months just to pick a person, makes this look more like a talent show, rather than eurovision. There are some great singers in the selection, but without a good song it doesn’t make any difference.

Either way, I’m rooting for Netta. She is memorable and different.

Nitzan
Nitzan
6 years ago
Reply to  Miguel

Miguel this is actually a talent show. It existed before it became ESC related.

Roy Moreno
Roy Moreno
6 years ago

(I’m Israeli and following all episodes) I truely hate our selection process 1) Due to a hugh amount of commercials, the last duel wasn’t televised… They didn’t have enough time 2) Why do they think that judging Mergui for example singing a song from a genre which is not his genre, is a good idea? Or an actual eay of judging someone to Eurovision? Mergui is a pop singer so let them sing pop and judge him by his skills in pop 3) Only the audience there can vote while everyone at home can vote only on the night of… Read more »

gili
gili
6 years ago
Reply to  Roy Moreno

let’s start with picking a real artist like neta and not another pretty face pop singer…not that mergui is bad but neta is different level

gili
gili
6 years ago

Neta must win…i believe she can win eurovision, she is going to step out in the contest, there is nothing like her. and TJ, she is an amazing singer without the recording stuff. she is just being creative and unique and only for that you should appreciate it. she is an artist and not just a singer but if you didnt realize it yet so i guess you have a problem, big one

Jordan
Jordan
6 years ago

EDEN MEIRI <3

James
James
6 years ago

Kapit lang!

TJ
TJ
6 years ago

I don‘t get the hype about Netta. She‘s not even singing and without her recording stuff (which she cant use in ESC anyway) she‘s got nothing.

Joe
Joe
6 years ago
Reply to  TJ

Don’t be so sure – JOWST got away with similar equipment.

gili
gili
6 years ago
Reply to  TJ

a teaser for her band…just another example how amazing she is…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F8azpW7-mc