Shalom Israel! The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — has landed in sun-soaked Tel Aviv. We are ready to hit the hot beaches and clubs, but first we have to review Israel’s song for Eurovision 2017 — “I Feel Alive” from IMRI. Does it give us life…or leave us feeling a little dead inside? Read on to find out!
IMRI – “I Feel Alive”
About IMRI
Imri Ziv, 25, is an Israeli singer and voice actor. Over the past two years he’s been just a few feet from stardom, serving as a backing vocalist for the 2015 and 2016 Israeli acts Nadav Guedj and Hovi Star. In February he won the reality singing competition HaKokhav HaBa L’Eurovizion (The Next Star for Eurovision), which has helped him step out of the shadows and into the limelight.
“I Feel Alive” reviews
Deban: “I Feel Alive” struck me on the first spin, but this wasn’t sustained with repeat listens. IMRI sizzles on camera, and his vocals adapt well to the EDM genre. However, this entry doesn’t tug on my heartstrings, nor does it push me to the dance floor. Hopefully, the right staging could sprinkle some much needed magic on it.
Score: 5.5/10
Robyn: IMRI’s background is as a backing singer for Nadav and Hovi — and there are times during “I Feel Alive” when it sounds like he’s still singing backing vocals. The song is an undeniably great dance track, but it doesn’t have the same hooks as “Golden Boy” or the emotional heft of “Made of Stars”. If the audience remembers enough to be inspired to vote in the semi-final, it will be a borderline qualifier.
Score: 6/10
Anthony: As one of Nadav Guedj’s backing vocalists in 2015, this feels like a case of déjà vu — in a good way. Just like “Golden Boy”, “I Feel Alive” is another club banger of a Eurovision tune that will go down well at the Euroclub. The main challenge for Imri is whether he can follow suit, bring that party atmosphere to Kyiv and maybe another top 10 finish for Israel.
Score: 8.5/10
Sinan: This type of song should always be included in the contest. The song totally slays — I can dance to it, it’s sung really well plus the ethno sound (oh my gosh!) is unique and super addictive. The track is very modern. I can’t wait to see the stage performance. I wish every success to IMRI and hope he gets a very good place in the finals!
Score: 10/10
Jordi: Imri’s “I Feel Alive” has come like rain in the desert amongst this year’s plethora of ballads. This dance hit mixes electronic beats with traditional sounds, and the result is truly impressive. An amazing club banger. This song transmits good energy and positive vibes — it’s very “let’s have a good time!” at a time the world could use it. Between the lovely message and the vocals, there’s definitely a place for “I Feel Alive” in the grand final…even if it’s missing that big hook.
Score: 7.5/10
William: On stage Imri Ziv reminds me of a mannequin — physically perfect, but somehow stiff. His performances lean toward the wooden and I get the sense he’s not comfortable fully letting go in the public eye. Thankfully his songwriters have delivered a banger of a tune that pulls him out of his shell and masks any vocal shortcomings. The Middle Eastern flair instantly elevates this above so many of the mediocre songs in the competition. It grows monotonous in its own way, but Israel can conceal that with dynamic staging.
Score: 6/10
Antony: There are multiple songs this year that are trying to break away from the components of a classic Eurovision song. This one does it successfully with its infectious and catchy club banger beat, but maintains a bit of ethnic flavour with Israeli bagpipes flowing with the beat. I cannot wait to see what IMRI and Israel have in store for us on stage in Kiev this year.
Score: 7/10
Chris: It’s never a good sign when you have to remind yourself of a song’s existence. This is enjoyable when it’s on, but so easily forgotten when it’s finished. IMRI and “I Feel Alive” could have been a top-five contender in some other year, but it feels like many of the other male acts this year have stolen his thunder by going a different route. To counter that IMRI needs a great stage performance and a lot of presence. Whether that can all come together is another question; his qualification may be in doubt.
Score: 6/10
In our Wiwi Jury, we have 38 jurors but only room for eight reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
Anastas: 9/10
Andy: 6.5/10
Angus: 8.5/10
Antranig: 7.5/10
Bernardo: 8/10
Bogdan: 6.5/10
Dayana: 7.5/10
Edd: 7/10
Erdi: 10/10
Forrest: 7/10
George: 6.5/10
Jacob: 5/10
Jason: 6/10
Josh: 7/10
Jovana: 6/10
Kristin: 8.5/10
Luis: 6.5/10
Marek: 6/10
Matt: 8/10
Mikhail: 4/10
Natalie: 7/10
Padraig: 7/10
Patrick: 8/10
Renske: 8.5/10
Rezo: 9/10
Sami: 9/10
Stanislav: 9.5/10
Steinunn: 6.5/10
Tobias: 6/10
Zakaria: 4/10
Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 4 and a high of 10.
Wiwi Jury verdict: 7.17/10
What do you think of this song? Share your own score and review below!
https://youtu.be/43GtIHhVGrs
See our current Eurovision 2017 reviews and rankings
The good: he’s hot (loving his Spanish language interviews) he’s performing last in SF2, and love the Oriental music break. He might reach the final.
The bad: the song itself is a little disposable
The ugly: it’s a 5.5 at best. Sorry.
Not my type of song but it is nice to listen to when you are listening to it. I think the song is good ear candy. Nice when you hear it and then you easily forget about it. I have it pretty low so far.
Deep down, we all secretly want this to win, don’t we? Yeah, we do. It’s catchy and, much like Golden Boy, brings a little bit of Israel into the song, which really celebrates some much-needed diversity in the contest.
I Feel Alive is very much this year’s J’ai Cherche. An upbeat party song with a vderysimilar mizraki feel. Amir was regarded as a frontrunner early on last year but he wasn’t served well by a solo live performance of a party song that simply lacked a party…
Imri has a really great dance track that will score well with first time listeners but the staging is everything with a song like this. If he’s there by himself, like Amir was, it will fall short of it’s potential
Imry sounds perfect in the live show in amesterdam its was amaizing ,without politics
top 10 for sure.
This song is actually very good, but here is the thing. He could actually have made a 3 complete chorus song (verses and music(, but instead he wanted to repeat alive 10 times, before realizing that he was going to leave us expecting for another music part that was never going to happen. Nevertheless, I hope he brings a good staging but, so far, I can’t give this song the mark he could achieve.
7/10
This is so pure fun and energy-bust with a sunny atmosphere! LOVE IT! 12 points from Russia
@Dana
aw Imri is so cute, a shame he had sound problems at the tel aviv party, but he was a lot better here in amsterdam 🙂
and thank you for your support then of Romania, my fave as well, has been my fave country for many years now, i felt gutted when Ovidiu couldn’t perform last year
@Danuta Romania
Thank you from israel, I’m half Romanian too and i also supports you.Shabat Shalom from israel 🙂
The song is a club banger, and IMRI is very cute. He has charisma and he’ll do just fine in Kiev (for all the haters). We like his song and we will support him on Eurovision (because he’s our half Romanian brother).
Journalists should sass singers or be unwelcoming because they don’t like song – great suggestion -rolls eyes-
I enjoy pre-chorus build here, it’s superb. But then song falls down in chorus quickly and yet I’m also forgetful about verses. There’s some bagpipe, that digs it out of blandness in order to make flamboyant dance track, but it doesn’t cover this outdated beat line.
Prediction: rather qualifier than not. Closing spot saves this hard-to-recall song, and handsome singer with good staging – Israel normally knows how – will work in favor.
Yesssss go israel..love this 🙂 you have to be very sad person to not love this fun beautiful song 🙂 duz pua from Greece.
@charles: dude where have you been? i missed your negativity. 🙂
I think this entry la overrated
“This kind of song should always be included in the contest” … when I read this I said to myself “let the guy who said this to finish his job in the wc as he stares at Imri’s body” and then tell him that “this kinda of song HAS ALWAYS been in the contest the same way as BALLADS have always been in the contest … ”
The mad obsessive addiction towards cheep eurodance stuff and the hatred for slower songs in Eurovision was worthy of a serious PhD study …
Cheap europop + jerk-off material as singer = at least a 7 rating from the wiwi community.
Probably the best comment in this page lol.
Okay, it is an uptempo song, but that doesn’t make it a good one by default. Very forgettable song. 3/10 (33/43)
I give imri 10/10..my favorite song
I personally think that too many of the Wiwi jury voted with their body parts on this number.
@mad-professor: Yes I just noticed that too! In my opinion, it’s a silly situation that I hope gets resolved very quickly.
@hada Your comment about imri is very ugly..I’m sure imri has better voice than you and im sure he is much more pretty than you ever be..keep envy…@mr dont worry sweetie imri will make it to the final very easy
@Mar – ”The song feels under produced”
Is better to be under-produced and to sound better in the actual competition, and not the other way around.
@fikri
Israel’s broadcaster is being replaced at the end of this month. The new one will have a main channel dedicated to entertainment programming, but the EBU is annoyed because they require it to also show news and current affairs shows as well. If they don’t change that, the EBU won’t let them show Eurovision (and other EBU content), and if they don’t show it then they can’t take part.
https://eurovoix.com/2017/04/07/israel-national-broadcaster-ebu/
The song feels underproduced, the chorus is underwhelming and the vocals are down right tragic. The only saving grace this song has is the middle eastern instrumentation near the end. Basically a poor man’s Golden Boy, I doubt it will qualify.
Great summer song from someone who actually knows summer. If only he didn’t sound like a dying cat live…
I love this, it has made it to my top 3 actually. Very addicitve and danceable.
Let’s hope he can get a similar result like “Golden Boy” did.
He is gorgeous.
Liron:
As in past years, Deban and company can be proven wrong if the acts managed to surpass the lowly expectations given by the Wiwijurors and actually rule the stage come ESC night.
“Golden Boy” was also given a similar treatment before but those two nights in Vienna surely won them over. It’s not impossible but the pressure is on Imri and his team to prove people wrong.
my winner this year!!!! 12 points from Germany! lucky I can vote in both: semi-finals and final!!!?
@james deban also shouldn’t tell something in an interview and than write something completely different..no wonder he is not a real professional journalist..i dont take his or Williams opinion seriously.
Geo Romania: As an interviewer, Deban cannot cross a journalistic line to tell his interviewees his personal opinions about their songs, as would any music journalist would. His score for Imri’s song for the Wiwijury is based on how the song would fare in the contest itself based on its own merits, including a singer’s capability to lift even the dullest of songs. He gives very valid arguments and now way those are meant diss a singer and a competing entry. Besides, the score he gave for “I Feel Alive” is quite modestly okay, in all fairness. It’s not too… Read more »
Deban gave 5,5 and still he was all smiles and almost wet himself near IMRI? Shame on you Deban, some people can act so well! I totally dislike Croatia’s song but If I would have been a reporter and interview Jacques I would NEVER ever say “Oooh, Jacques…I ADORE your song…” and be so smiley. Bleah, makes me sick… 5,5?!?
I really like it. Let’s see how it translates on stage.
Imri is going to surprises every one on the live stage with amazing staging ..all the haters here will eat there ugly hat!
@Geo Romania
Deban gave Imri 5,5 so lower than you thought. I like the song, Imri will shine so I don’t get the comments about him as backing vocals as if it would’ve been better no experience at all.
@mad professor
Dont you worry, israel will participate.
@Geo romania
You are so right, deban and William are two Hippocrates..in other video they said they like the song and they also told it to imry.now suddenly they wrote bad things of it.but who cares really?? Just becouse they have this web site dosent make there opinion more important..for me imri number 1.
@mad-professor: what do you mean?
Performing this live will definitely require him to dance onstage, which is something I don’t think he’ll be able to do effectively because he looks so stiff, not just in that mini-dance he did in the music video but also on snippets of his live performances in the promo performances he has done so far.
I know he did some dancing before back in 2015, but he was a back-up singer there so the attention wasn’t on him.
I can see Israel struggling but I won’t be surprised if it qualifies from its semifinal due to popular televotes.
When I heard it I wasn’t thrilled! But now, the more I listen to it, the more I like it! I want to get up and dance! Eurovision totally needs such songs! In difficult times you need to watch sth cheerful and happy! And Israel does that! In a sea of ballads and songs with a meaning, it’s an oasis! I don’t say there shouldn’t be ballads or songs with a message, don’t get me wrong. But this song is so good and it can bring such energy on stage in Kiyv! I also love the traditional sound, I’m always… Read more »
I just saw an interview by Wiwibloggs on youtube where IMRI is interviewed by Deban, who is high on the heels, and singing “I’m alive” along IMRI. And Deban is simply ecstatic. Still, he gives IMRI 6,5? Am I missing something? I don’t like liars and hypocrites…And fake “reporters”, he acted like he adored the song, and yet he gave such a low score.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeAdpiZiVyA&t=326s
It souns like any schlagger song we’ve heard million times.. and tries to be current but it feels really dated.
The chrorus is a big fail and the song goes nowhere.
This song also doesn’t suit Imri at all.. his vocals are disappointing so far.
Eurovision doesn’t need more cliche Eurodance cause it’s the reason many people hate and are not interested in this contest.
Is there a point in rating Israel’s entry when they probably won’t be allowed to perform at Eurovision this year?
A really hot guy with a forgettable dance song There is a lot of upbeat dance dongs this year and this is not one of the strongest. I think a lot of the performers in semi final 2 will come down to staging and the live performance on the night. Song is OK but going last could help him scrape through to the final
This is not bad at all, it’s actually quite fun and enjoyable. However, it’s not anything special to me, it doesn’t make me want to listen to it again. I think it will easily qualify because it’s an upbeat song and it closes the Semi-Final. His looks will also help a lot. I’m not sure how it will do in the final though. The likes of Sweden and Italy may overshadow it.
6.5/10
I really LIKE the song. <3
It's from my favorites songs actually.
(And Imri is such hot & sexy hunk <3 )
My grade: 8/10
My rank: 5th/42 – 4th/18 (2nd SF)
If my scorecard holds true, Imri is going to ride the razor’s edge attempting to qualify. I don’t just give an arbitrary grade when I listen to these songs and watch the videos. I score 10 aspects of the performance (5 for the song, and 5 for the video); and for this entry, in my first evaluation, he barely misses qualifying. This is no doubt a good song; but he will need a very strong stage presentation to make it to the final. If he were in the 1st semi, he’d make it through on my card.
I keep forgetting this song, and for an uptempo one that’s not good at all. Imri is also an average singer and a bit wooden on stage. I would like to see the ethnic elements a bit more during the song. Meh
I get its one of the few uptempo songs we have but still I cannot say it’s good.
4/10
This tune sounds dated and very late 90s early noughties.
I can’t understand the highscore for this one
My favourite entry this year!
Mario’s Eurovision 2017
https://eurovision2017blog.wordpress.com/