As y’all know by now, Tel Aviv will be the host city of Eurovision 2019. The Israeli news website Ynet has recently revealed more information regarding the upcoming contest, including the final candidates on KAN’s list to host the contest: Shiri Maimon, Erez Tal, Geula Even Saar and Lucy Ayoub. The official announcement of the hosts is expected in November.
So who are these Israeli stars that we could see hosting from Pavilion 1 and 2 in May 2019? Let’s look at the candidates.
Shiri Maimon
Shiri Maimon needs no introduction if you’re a hardcore Eurovision fan, as she reached a respectful fourth place in Eurovision 2005 with her song “HaSheket SheNish’ar” (The Silence that Remains) – one of Israel’s best results ever in Eurovision.
Other than her successful musical and acting career, she has also been a TV host during the last two decades in many TV shows, as well as hosting the former Israeli national selection for Eurovision — Kdam — in 2011.
Shiri is as busy as ever. She is currently starring in the Broadway musical Chicago as the main character Roxie Hart. Recently it was announced that she will also join The Next Star For Eurovision 2019 (Israel’s national selection show) as a judge.
Erez Tal
Erez Tal, 57, is one of Israel’s most successful TV and radio hosts. He hosted an endless number of TV shows during the last decades and has huge experience in hosting live TV shows, which made him the leading male candidate on KAN’s wishlist. Another reason he is one of the leading candidates is his role in Eurovision 2018 — he was a commentator and received an incredibly positive feedback after the broadcast.
Geula Even-Saar
Geula Even-Saar, 46, is a senior TV presenter on KAN (she began on the former IBA channel), mostly on the main evening newscast. She is also a journalist and a radio host.
Lucy Ayoub
Lucy Ayoub, 26, is KAN’s TV and radio presenter, who gave Israel’s jury points during Eurovision 2018. According to the latest reports, she is the only confirmed host at the moment. KAN would reportedly like her to co-host in the green room or in a similar position so she will not be one of the main hosts.
Lior Suchard
Lior Suchard, 36, is a mentalist and self-described “mystifier” who performs “supernatural entertainment”. He is well known as a mentalist both in Israel and abroad. He has appeared on many big major TV shows in the US, such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (five times!), Larry King Now, The Doctors, Good Morning America and The Late Late Show with James Corden.
According to Ynet’s report, Lior is on the candidates list as well, yet he seems to be ranked quite low on the list and is not as popular as KAN’s top pick for the male host, Erez Tal.
Gal Gadot?
Gal Gadot is perhaps the biggest Israeli star abroad at the moment. She’s a face of female empowerment in light of her humanitarian work and starring role in the Wonder Woman franchise. Shortly after Israel won Eurovision in May 2018, KAN reached out to her and offered her to host Eurovision 2019, but unfortunately her schedule was already full and she had to turn down the offer.
Yet in a recent interview with KAN’s CEO Eldad Koblentz, he hinted that he hasn’t given up yet on getting Gal as a host and is ready to make it as easy as possible for her if she’ll just say yes. Will we see the Wonder Woman at Eurovision 2019? Who knows!
The upcoming events
According to Ynet this is the estimated schedule for the upcoming events:
- November: Official announcement of the hosts.
- December: Sale of the first batch of tickets begins.
- February: Selection of the Israeli representative and song.
- Late March/April: Stage construction and first rehearsals, postcard filming in Israel.
- April/May: Delegations arrive in Israel.
- May:
9 – The Eurovision Village Opening
14 – Semi Final 1
16 – Semi Final 2
18 – The Grand Final
Eurovision 2019 locations
We already know that the contest will take place at the Expo Tel Aviv (International Convention Center) on Tuesday 14, Thursday 16 and Saturday 18 May 2019. In addition, there are other events that surround the contest that will take place in Tel-Aviv. These are the events and locations, according to Ynet:
- The Host City Insignia Exchange and the semi-finals allocation draw will be held at the historic city hall on Bialik Street.
- The Red Carpet event will be held at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art square.
- The Eurovision Village will be at the Charles Clore Park.
What do you think about the potential hosts? who would you like to host Eurovision 2019? Share your ideas below!
Alma zak should host
???? ??
Everyone, except that old man. I’m sure if they want they can find some younger, good looking presenters
He is super super talented!!!
What different does his age make?
Looking at this I wouldn’t actually mind if it was two/three/four female hosts again.
No one is commenting on some of the other updates in this blurb. For example, Red Carpet event in the Museum of Art Square is going to be sooooo lit. Its so pretty around there!!!
Well, only the new building is beautiful, the old one is a brutalist sad piece of concrete. Looks like a factory or something. I live in Berlin and I never saw such an ugly museum. And Berlin is not the prettiest city.
Ummmm…. hello… NADAV!!!!! Jk, he should just do the post cards! But Shiri would be perfect for this.
I mostly worry about their English. If they can’t speak and pronounce the words well, we’re in trouble. I heard Assi Azar talk to Netta after she won and it was awkward to listen to.
The weird thing is that Assi Azar is married to a Spanish guy, they lived many years together, so they obviously used English to communicate in their first years, I think he had a terrible accent in the night of Eurovision because he was not trying to sound good, I think he might have decent English.
Israel used a news anchor in 1999 as well. It seems to me that KAN/IBA likes to use Eurovision to honor people from the organization, not only thinking of who is best on stage.
To be fair, he was a very good host, and good with languages. For what it’s worth, he was also the first openly gay Eurovision presenter, which I don’t think we’d see again until Conchita took green room duties a few years ago. If Erez gets it, he’ll only be the third (technically fourth, although Måns is bi).
Also! Just as a side note: Conchita, Måns, Dana International, and Marija Serifovic remain the four only openly-LGBTQ people to win.
Erez Tal is straight, at least as far as we know. He’s married to a woman and was romantically involved with other women before that.
Assi Azar is gay but it doesn’t seem like he’ll get the gig, despite his wishes to host.
and I didn’t know that about Måns!
Got ’em confused! I meant Assi. I guess since they’ve hosted stuff together and both have been rumored to be hosts.
And yeah, he came out a few years after he made some not-so-great comments about gay people, but he was very much accepting of the community by the time he won (he loves Conchita, of course, and his acceptance speech was very LGBTQ-positive) and eventually opened up about being open to dating guys.
Måns? He is steady with a girl, and they just had a baby. What are you on?
He said something very non-committed that “if he felt it” he might date a guy. Something like that. It hardly qualifies him as bi.
Yeah, as much as I like Måns, it seemed to me that he was just desperately scrambling to regain some good will…I would put him down as heterosexual. He said that “if” he was attracted to a guy he would explore that , but to date it has never happened. A stretch.
David, sure, he’s with a girl and has just had a baby – none of that contradicts anything Joe said.
Hey, you’re forgetting Katrina! She was both winner and host (kinda), so she for sure should be on the list.
Loreen is another LGBTQ winner (she is openly bisexual). That makes four LGBT winners (Dana, Marija, Loreen, Conchita). Måns is not. (No, saying that he would consider dating a guy as a way to dismiss criticism for his homophobic remarks doesn’t count.)
Well…not Dana. At least I don’t think so considering she is so conservative. 🙂
Dana International, yes.
Huh! Makes sense. The more you know, I guess. When did Katrina say anything about being a lesbian or bi?
I guess if we count her we can also count Graham Norton.
Gal Gadot would bring a lot of positive press and attention, they need to keep trying and get her on board.
So exiting! cant wait to travel TEL AVIV!!
I hope they are not going to pick 4 hosts, as we all seen last year that was WAY too many. Regarding Geula Even – bringing a news anchor to host a light entertainment show is like bringing a dentist to entertain children on a birthday party. How is there no comedians on the list? With all the amazing Israeli comedians, how is Geula Even, Erez Tal and that Ayoub woman are the top choices? It is not the Nobel Prize ceremony, it’s f*cking Eurovision. Bring a good looking guy, a funny woman and someone annoying at the green room.… Read more »
Chill dude, it’s not like your life depends on it! Btw, Erez Tal is super charismatic. Appearance is not everything. Maybe they will bring you to green room 😀
Erez Tal in action! This is what we need 😀 The bottle wasn’t real of course. It was a joke for his co-host, a good one! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEou8kFX5Fw
Chill dude, it seems like your life depends on Erez Tal’s success.
I just like him, but I don’t really care about the presenters. Besides, he doesn’t need Eurovision. He’s already one of the most successfull presenters in israeli TV’s history. You will do a great job in greenroom! 😀 Hope you’re good looking.
I love that prank! Maybe they could use it for a joke about the stage invaders. Some dope runs onstage to protest something and Erez breaks a bottle over his head.
It would be very useful to know more on how to get cheap accomodations . I read that hotel prices in TLV on the weekend of the Eurovision doubled and even tripled. Perhaps in Netanya, Hertezliya and Jerusalem prices could be more reasonable?
If you want to stay in Tel Aviv, your only sane option would be Airbnb, and there are endless Airbnb apartments and rooms available in Tel Aviv. Hotels in Tel Aviv are unbelievably expensive all year long, and they have all increased prices even more for Eurovision. Jerusalem hotel prices are more expensive than Tel-Aviv on regular days, I assume it will be so during Eurovision period as well, as it’s considered high-season there as it is, plus I assume that as you’re not the only one thinking of it, they’ll jump on the wagon and increase prices too. Netanya… Read more »
The way I see it, the perfect trio for the main stage would be Shiri, Erez, and Geula, with Lucy handling the green room.
And, yknow, Gal Gadot, if they can get her
Too many cooks spoil the broth, and four is way too many as we saw last year. I would go for no more than three including the greenroom, Of the above four I would ditch Shiri – great singer but I doubt she’ll shine as a host.
The one I would really like to see hosting it is Noa Tishbi, she’s good enough to host it on her own and I still wish they’ll pick her, she would be perfect.
In 1999, Israel became the first country to have three hosts, maybe next year they will have five.
Although one will do, two max.
Funny how the last two contests have foreshadowed the green room hosts (Lucy Ayoub gave the Israeli votes this year and Filomena gave the Portuguese votes the year before)
Geula Even is charismatic, witty and sarcastic. I know many think she’s a bad fit, but I think that if they’ll let her do her thing she’ll be incredible. Erez Tal is great. He’s funny and sharp and always has good chemistry with his colleagues. Lucy Ayoub is lovely, so pretty and cute. I really like her. She started out in Slam Poetry and rose to fame after her slam-poem about being a young Arab woman in Israel became viral. you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/6z7NL4Saasg [English subs available in the settings]. Shiri Maimon is an awesome singer but I… Read more »
Please team rising star Assi Azar Rotem Sela
Please no
They should get Yael Grobglas (aka Petra from Jane the virgin)
Only the silence remains…Which means my vote goes for Shiri. 🙂
Congratulations to Shiri, making her Broadway debut this week!
So annoyed I can’t hop a train to see her. Who knows, I still have a few weeks…
A mentalist as a host. I’m crying.
What about Assi Azar 🙁 ?
Does any of those speak French?
Yeah…Erez Tal
Where did you get that fact from? Have you ever heard him speak French? when?
Lots of Israelis are descended from North African Jews and know French because of that, especially the older generation