Eurovision 2018 winner Netta Barzilai already knew that her mother’s roots could be traced to Morocco and Libya, and that her father’s side has deep connections to Poland.

But after visiting the headquarters of MyHeritage — the official sponsors of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 — she learned a whole lot more.

In the emotional video below, the “Toy” hitmaker receives her MyHeritage DNA results on camera along with some additional information garnered by a family research team.

Netta watches a video message from one of her DNA matches, sees video footage from her great grandfather’s house in Poland and even smells a bar of soap from her great great grandfather’s factory. We can’t tell if she likes the aroma, but we do know she’s getting all the feels.

Netta was thrilled to discover that she has some Irish DNA. Apparently she’s had a lifelong affinity for the Irish. Make sense: They have won Eurovision more than any other country! Beyond the Emerald Isle, Netta has at least 7,000 relatives in 60 countries from the United States to Libya.

Visit Netta’s page on the One Big Family site to learn more

In the past Netta has said that her unique upbringing — between Israel and Nigeria — may have influenced her musically. It’s fair to say that her DNA continues the theme. Here’s how her host at MyHeritage put it.

“What many of your fans love about your music is the way you use different samples and different beats and mix it up together.”

“Just like you take the different mixes and beats, your origins and the people in your family, and where they came from, also mix together and make Netta this unique blend of special DNA.”

MyHeritage: #OneBigFamily

MyHeritage’s One Big Family project seeks to answer one big question: What will Eurovision stars discover about their family roots? It’s an act of fun and discovery, and it also shows how we’re all frequently much more connected than we realise.

Charlotte Perrelli said she was “overwhelmed” by the process. And Netta admitted that “this is addictive”. In the coming weeks more than 40 other stars from the song contest family will find out about their family’s journey. And in doing so learn a bit more of their own.

Have you had any DNA matches with Eurovision stars? What other legends are you hoping will participate in the MyHeritage project? Let us know down below…

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Rémy
Rémy
4 years ago

“In the coming weeks more than 40 other stars from the song contest family will find out about their family’s journey.”
Okay but I bet the German delegation is shaking in their boots ?

t3t3t3
t3t3t3
4 years ago
Reply to  Rémy

Why? Laurita (the brunette one) is half Philippina, so the ESC fans from Philippines that wanted Bella Santiago, can now support Germany.

La Signora
La Signora
4 years ago

I thought Netta was 100% Georgian lol

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
4 years ago

the most disgusting thing bout it is that the contest is in israel out of all places…. n ‘ethnic background’ was literally the reason why six million jews died in ww2. insensitve n greedy af of the contest organizers.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
4 years ago

Spot on, Polegend. 🙂

Whisker
Whisker
4 years ago

There is nothing disgusting about that. Jewish people, in Israel and abroad, OWN their history and heritage, even considering those horrible events. It’s up to them to decide how they see the value of “heritage”.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
4 years ago
Reply to  Whisker

Whisker wrote: “The value of heritage.”
There is the entire problem in four words. Thank you for articulating it.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
4 years ago

lmfao not y’all trustin these scam tests. if u wanna kno bout your ethnic background u gotta do the research yourself n get help from professionals

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
4 years ago

Sage advice.

Whisker
Whisker
4 years ago

I am not against it because ESC costs a lot of money and as long as there are businesses that contribute money- it’s an investment after all, they are only playing by the rules.

David
David
4 years ago

I took MyHeritage DNA-test, but I sort of take it all with a grain of salt, especially the ethnicity part.

Conor K
Conor K
4 years ago

Netta has some Irish in her! Irish power 🙂

Ann
Ann
4 years ago

Am I the only one that think the whole thing sounds kinda…racist? One big family and so on – I know. But the sentences like “a unique blend of special DNA” have quite bad connections :/

Whisker
Whisker
4 years ago
Reply to  Ann

Racism is the belief that a race is superior to others and involves systematic and systemic actions/behaviours of discrimination, conscious or not. There is nothing wrong with “a unique blend of special DNA”, just consider the context OK?

Ann
Ann
4 years ago
Reply to  Whisker

Whisker – no, not only. Suggesting that someones DNA is better than others because of ethnicity is simply wrong.
And Netta is a good artist not because of her “unique blend od special DNA”, but because she has talent. It’s not a dog show :/
Besides, I said the context was good. But the form…eh.

Elsa
Elsa
4 years ago
Reply to  Ann

Yes I agree. I do not even understand what they scientifically mean with her being ‘jew’ as it is known that there is no such a thing as a ‘jewish gene’… But even if there was – who cares? Thought Europe was done with this crap.

David
David
4 years ago
Reply to  Elsa

Jews have mostly married within their group for thousands of years, so they make an own genetic cluster, which clearly distinguish them from most of the non-Jews in the socities in which they live.

Whisker
Whisker
4 years ago
Reply to  Elsa

Considering that Jewish people preserved their genetic make-up through marriages and procreating within their own ethnic group, which was their choice, Jewish genes do exist. It’s biology.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
4 years ago
Reply to  Ann

Thank you Ann. Yes, it is fundamentally racist. Hopefully this blog can eventually see that and stop these promotions.

Bob
Bob
4 years ago
Reply to  Ann

It’s just for fun… but I do agree that making heritage seem important is never a good thing. We are all descendent from the same monkeys, what matters is not where our parents came from but what we choose to do with our lives.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
4 years ago

On the last such post, I promised to object to this “MyHeritage” process every time it appeared. So here is my objection. My opinion of it has not changed, but people are welcome to try to convince me otherwise.

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
4 years ago
Reply to  Purple Mask

Thanks Una. Indeed, let’s see if this blog has to put out 40 more such articles. If so, I might have talked myself into making 40 more comments of objection. (Oops.)

EscGreece
EscGreece
4 years ago

It would be better for me if singers from this year would do this for the sponsor, instead of old stars

????
4 years ago

Chicken

Whisker
Whisker
4 years ago
Reply to  ????

Are you trying to be offensive or is the message of the song lost on you?

stommie
stommie
4 years ago

“In the coming weeks more than 40 other stars from the song contest family will find out about their family’s journey. And in doing so learn a bit more of their own.”

And what if they don’t want to find out?

Whisker
Whisker
4 years ago
Reply to  stommie

Well maybe they want to find out. This should however be a personal decision and the results should be kept personal unless they agree to make them public. I don’t see how any of them can be forced to do the test and share the results.

stommie
stommie
4 years ago

I saw this also at the beginning of EiC at the big led screen. Did she do this voluntary or was there any contractual obligation?

Jan
Jan
4 years ago

This is getting very annoying… I know that sponsors are needed but they have never been as visible and intrusive as MyHeritage this year… Eurovision is organsed by PBC so it should as much add-free as feasible….

Jan
Jan
4 years ago
Reply to  Jan

*it should stay as much add-free as feasible…