It was a short selection process, but one filled with over-the-top auditions, dramatic duels, emotional eliminations and plenty of sob stories. But on Monday we finally reached the grand final of Israel’s The Next Star for Eurovision 2017 . Four acts sang, and in the end Imri Ziv emerged as the winner, earning the right to sing for Israel at Eurovision 2017.
Imri — no doubt a contender to win our annual search for Eurovision’s Next Top Male Model — will stand out at Eurovision for reasons beyond his good looks. In a sea of screaming female soloists at Eurovision, he’s a man with a plan (and pecs) and plenty of Eurovision experience: He served as a backing vocalist for the Israeli artists Nadav Guedj and Hovi Star in 2015 and 2016.
But there’s more to him than standing in the shadows. He studies media at university — expect him to charm the socks off the ESC press —and he works as a singer in a special group called “Caliente”, which performs at private events. As you probably know, caliente means hot.
The judges couldn’t help but comment on his amazing look during his audition — but they also praised his voice and charisma. He can sing, he can dance and Israeli fans are hoping that he will find the right song that will make it to the final. We don’t yet know the style he’ll pursue at Eurovision, but we do know that he’s versatile. Just check out his renditions of “Rude Boy” and “The Edge of Glory” below.
The full results
Producers divided the show’s contestants into two duels. During 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 follows: each judge voted yay or nay, with a yay awarding the contestant a score of 3%. The TV viewers voted in a similar way via a special smartphone application and the scores were added together during each 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.
Duel 1: Imri Ziv VS. The Beatbox Element
- Imri Ziv – “Halo” – Score: 78% (four judge votes)
- The Beatbox Element – “Hey Mama” – Score: 55% (two judge votes)
Duel 2: Julieta VS. Diana Golbi
- Julieta – “My Number One” – Score: 53% (one judge vote)
- Diana Golbi “Euphoria” – Score: 84% (four judge votes)
The judges were then asked to pick one of the losers to continue in the next round. Three out of the four judges picked Julieta, meaning The Beatbox Element were eliminated.
The super final
In the last round, the artists performed in a similar way as the preceding duels, but only the TV viewers could vote and the judges could not influence the scores. The results were as follows:
- Julieta – “Shikorim MeAhava” – 58%
- Imri Ziv – “Because Of You” – 74%
- Diana Golbi – “Purple Rain” – 67%
The Israeli song for Eurovision 2017
Unlike in 2016, this year’s selection process only picked the singer and not the song. That means that just like in 2015, a special committee will now pick a song from a field of songs submitted to producers. We’ll let you know just as soon as they are selected
Can Israel make it to the grand final of Eurovision 2017 in Kyiv? Maybe even win? Let us know in the comments box below!
Here’s my shade: here’s the guy that is gonna make all the Conchitas and their respective sausages we their briefs and boxers ….
Here’s my serious expectation: that he’s more than just he’s-drop-dead-gorgeous-and-i-hope-he’s-gay-too … if there is a voice, talent and a one DAMN song to match all that, I’m on it! Because right now we already have one gorilla to distract us from what really matters here … enough is enough!
Some comments on the night: I really liked Beatbox Element’s performances. I didn’t expect them to win. Imri was a favourite. Julieta’s performance wasn’t that good too. She has a great energy, but her English wasn’t perfect, I thought I heard the wrong words, especially at the beginning. I really liked they made the music of “My number one” more relevant to their tradition. It sounded Israeli. Imri’s performance of “Halo” was not that good, same for “Because of you”. It would be better. He has a nice voice though. Diana was amazing for one more time! Her cover of… Read more »
Israel is one of my favorite , Imri sound and look like a real star, hopefully his song will be very good and israel will win they deserve it.
Im not excited at all for Israel.. they are one of my least favorite countries in Eurovision, cant think of a single song ive liked from them. And I think The Beatbox Element sounded more promising than Imri Ziv but oh well..
@ Robyn Gallagher
Thank you for the answer!
Yesss i love him, imri is an amazing vocalist and so hot.Good luck????
Good choice!
A versatile performer who can sing, with the right song, choreography and staging i am sure Imri will give it his all. I am predicting good things here, among other things….
He seems to be an average performer. He looks like an X Factor winner who only wins because of how cute he isabd is then forgotten about. Hopefully they can give him a good song. Because I would not mind Israel winning.
Sorry, but I don’t remember him as backing vocalist, was he ”hidden”? I think is disrespectful to hide the backing vocalists, and I don’t know if they count as persons on stage that must be maxim 6.
Next top male model will be Francesco Gabbani, and even if he will not win, he will still be the guilty pleasure that many don’t want to admit.
@Hayley – sorry for messing up my math, but I think it’s unprecedented for a finalist to get a 17% difference between the two songs performed. It’s clearly an anomaly, but when you think about it, her 84% consisted of 12% from the 4 jury panelists and so did Imri’s 78%, so it was really down to the ultimate song they chose and the rest is history.
@ erin
Diana’s 84% + 66% actually equals 150 not 152 so even if the results were done as overall Imri still would have won
I’m slightly gutted about Diana tbh she was my big favourite from the beginning but Imri is still a really nice choice
Imri v. Nathan Trent for next top male model. 🙂
We’ll have to wait for the song to see if Israel has a chance to qualify this year.
@Luis – thanks for that. I think you meant 90% with that 50000/5000 example, but my point is that they’ll never tell you the figures and that sucks! I wanna know how many votes in total were recorded during Imri’s performance compared to Diana and Julieta. Since we’ll never know that, the lack of transparency is disturbing as a matter of principal if nothing else.
@Erin
Here the voter have to press yes or no on their app.The percentage is=those who pressed yes/those who pressed either yes or no
So if only one voter presses yes for a performance and none press no .the percentage will be 100% but if 50000 voters press yes for a performance and 5000 press no then the percentage will be 89%
His halo performance was really not good……very out of tune especially in the beginning.
ct_greece
You mean you miss “golden boy” the song! I miss Hovi as a singer, I also think with better catchy song Hovi could’ve been on top 5!????
THE BEST CHOICE! Now he just needs a good song. Best of luck!!!!
Soooooooo Happy!! I was in favor of either Julieta or Imri and voted for both. Diana is a good singer, but I don’t think she’s right for Eurovision, not to mention that she resembles Mei Feingold and we all know what was the end of that try. As for Imri, He sings and dance so well and as an added bonus he looks great, so that’s the whole package for you. I think that the fact that there are more female singers this year with mostly ballads, will also work in his favor, especially if he’ll be given an uptempo… Read more »
@ct_greece: I agree with you, but his song choices were more relevant to an average 16 year old voter. I wonder how many people really bothered to download the special voting app before the show? I guess we’ll never know because the production never releases the actual figures. When they say a song got 74% or 67% percent, I’m always asking: of how much? How do we know what 1% represents in terms of votes? Look, this show had more holes in the story than Swiss cheese. You had 21 qualifiers singing one song suddenly reduced to 8 without any… Read more »
@ Gali
I am not an israeli and believe me nobody misses Hovi. We do miss “Golden boy” though 🙂
I’m an Israeli and sorry I don’t think Imri can get high scores on Eurovision… and I don’t think he has a good vocal abilities… But I still think that if Hovi had another chance with another catchy song with some r&b parts, he could easily be on top five! I’m kinda miss Hovi’s charisma, look, voice and charm…
@ Erin I thought she was actually so much better in “Purple Rain” than “Euphoria” which was quite a meh effort on her part which did not deserve such a high score. On the other hand he slayed in “Halo” but he wasn’t that good in “Because of you” and probably deserved a lower score in that second attempt. But by that point her fate was sealed – the public and judges just did not want to send her and I can’t blame them. Israel has sent Mei Feingold already and there are only limited song choices for a female… Read more »
Congratulations to Imri…his song cover choices were right on the mark because they achieved maximum public appeal. He was also clever to perform 2 songs sung by two glorious female American recording artists. He achieved 78% and 74% on his two attempts, while Diana had an amazing 84% for Euphoria but only 66% for Purple Rain, which was her lowest score to date because it was a condescending and unrelatable choice for the average 16 year old voter regardless of how brilliant and awe-inspiring it was… If there is any consolation, Diana’s 84%+66% equal Imri’s 74%+78% (152), but the last… Read more »
OMG Beatbox Element was so original and interesting. But we cant have something unique in Eurovision more. Everyone is afraid. So next solo classical euro songs. Try something new Europe, be unique, we want celebrate diversity.
Julieta. That’s all.
Wow, he’s amazing. I haven’t followed the selection, but tbh I’m glad that a man won the show. His “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” rendition gave me goosebumps.
Meh, I really wanted to hear Human from The Beatbox Element :s
He’s pretty much the Freddie of 2017 – very goodlooking, but so far without a strong artistic identity. I’m expecting a quite generic yet very enjoyable and catchy song from him, like Pioneer. Overall, a nice choice 🙂
He is simply lovely. Tahnk you Israel! Now give him a good, funky and upbeat song 🙂
The right winner!
Damnit.
I feel really frustrated right now, as my least favourite in the final has, for the third time, won Rising Star. I don’t say that Imri Ziv isn’t a bad choice, but I just don’t see anything special with him, compared to the other singers, in my honest opinion.
Whelp, unless they do a Hovi Star, and manage to give me a song that would later turn out to enter my top 10, I am sorry to say that I won’t be supporting Israel this year, but good luck eitherways in Kiev.
the show was too long, and so many covers, but anyway it was great
@evy
me too <3
YAAAAAAAAAAS i love him <3333333333