Israel: IBA finally confirms participation at Eurovision 2015

Israel will participate in Eurovision 2015! A long period of uncertainty ended yesterday at 19:00, when Yoav Ginai, director of the culture and entertainment department at the IBA, finally confirmed Jerusalem’s return.

But wait…hasn’t Israel already confirmed participation? Wasn’t an artist already chosen? If you feel a little confused (Team Wiwi was too!), don’t worry. A lot of conflicting information has been published about Israel recently in various medias. A lot of  decisions have been made, and were then cancelled or changed.

The inconsistency is a result of the fragile state of the IBA, which is in a progress of closing down and being re-established. But hey, don’t you worry even a little bit! We’re here to put things right and sum it all up for you, so you’ll know exactly what’s going in in the land of milk and honey!

It all started a few months ago, when a risk of Israel withdrawing arose, due to 3 main reasons. Firstly due to a government decision the IBA was going to be closed. Secondly the finances of the IBA meant the cost of participating might be too much and lastly, of course, Mei Feingold’s failure to qualify for a fourth consecutive year was very demoralising for everyone.

Last month, however, the Israeli fans were able to relax after holding their breath for months: the biggest problem of the three seemed to be solved. The process of closing down Channel 1 is expected to take an awfully long time, so Israel, it was reported, would still be able to participate through it. With last year’s result fading away from everyone’s memory, the only problem left was the money.

That’s why Jonah Viesenthal, IBA’s content director, came up with the idea of an internal artist selection by the music editors of Radio 88fm. Israel also confirmed preliminary participation at the same time, but was still saving herself the option of  withdrawing later without penalty, if later calculations would show that it can’t afford the participation economically.

The editors of radio 88FM came up with 3 selected artists: Jazz singer Marina Maximilian Blumin was their first choice. After her came Esther Rada and Asaf Avidan, both well known and very appreciated Israeli artists.

Even though a formal announcement hasn’t been given, the gossip section of the free daily newspaper Israel Hayom claimed that Marina Maximilian Blumin was planning to decline the offer, because she wanted to focus on other aspects of her career. Another gossip item from the last days says that Esther Rada, radio 88fm’s second option, is now pregnant. It seems possible then that Rada might decline the offer as she now has her baby on board!

Since Israel’s participation is now finally confirmed, the only question left to be answered is: Who is it going to be? Is it going to be Asaf Avidan, radio 88fm’s third and last option? Not necessarily. While confirming Israel’s participation, Yoav Ginai said that further information regarding the outline of participation would be revealed next week. And stay tuned: he told us all to be prepared for a really big surprise.

Hold your breath untill next week, because that’s when the mystery of the Israeli entry for Eurovision 2015 will be finally solved.

In the meantime enjoy an encore of ‘Same Heart’: