She’s considered one of the most successful models ever to come out of Israel, and has graced the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and topped Maxim‘s “Hot 100” list. And now YNet is reporting that model and socialite Bar Refaeli will host the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 alongside TV and radio personality Erez Tal.
The newspaper points out that KAN’s choice is not yet public and confirmed, as it is “subject to the approval of the European Broadcasting Union, the EBU, and then to the contractual agreements with the two”.
Who are the Eurovision 2019 hosts?
If you’re a member of any Israeli fan groups on Facebook — and you better believe that we are! — you’ll have seen her name mentioned for months. And for good reason. She’s got the charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent to carry the show — and presents a very pretty face for Israel.
Forbes has estimated her personal wealth at $20 million. The mother of two puts that money to good use, and boy can she turn a look, as seen on the cover of the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and in advertising campaigns for Chanel, Escada, Victoria’s Secret, Reebok and more.
She’s among a handful of Israel celebrities who regularly appears in Western media outlets. I once had to write a story for the MailOnline entitled “Pregnant Bar Refaeli shows off growing baby bump in skintight maternity wear in stunning Instagram pic.”
Most importantly, Bar is the host of Israel’s X Factor. She has song contest experience and knows the many pitfalls that can occur — with contestants and with the production teams that surround them — so can guide us through proceedings smoothly.
Erez Tal, 57, is one of Israel’s most successful TV and radio hosts. He’s hosted an endless number of TV shows in recent decades and has huge experience guiding live TV shows, which made him the leading male candidate on KAN’s wishlist for Eurovision.
Another reason he is one of the leading candidates is his role in Eurovision 2018 — he was a commentator and received incredibly positive feedback after the broadcast.
You can’t deny his enthusiasm for ESC. Following Netta’s recent Eurovision victory, he is the one who called on Israelis to “forget about work” and to go to Rabin Square to celebrate the nation’s fourth win…just as they did when Dana International won in 1998.
Beyond the two principle hosts, there’s also a third name in the mix: Lucy Ayoub,
The report says she’s in line to host the green room.
Lucy, 26, is KAN’s TV and radio presenter, and you may remember that she gave Israel’s jury points during Eurovision 2018.
Are you excited about KAN’s potential hosts? Do you think the duo (and trio) will have the right chemistry needed to keep viewers’ interest? Let us know down below!
Bar makes a lot of sense as a host, a recognisable and international figure but not a choice so ridiculous they’d never be willing to do it, like with the Gal Gadot talk.
Anyone except that old man, he’s not appealing to the camera. I mean, come on…this is even ridiculous, can’t they pair that beautiful girl with a good looking male?
When you reach his age dear racist, probably you would change opinion. I bet you found petra and anke very old for hosting right? #notoracism
@voix
I agree with you, but age is not race. Ageism is about age, racism is about race.
Why perfect english should matter? I like english with local accent. Penelope Cruz and Sofia Vergara don’t even try to speak perfect english because the accent is charming.
Wasn’t Bar suppose to go to jail for taxes fraud or something like that?
Watch this years jesc hosts, you would change your opinion.
Celebrate diversity, let people be different.
People should understand easily what the hosts say, that’s the minimum requirement of a host. So heavy, exotic accents might be “divers” but they have no place when hosting such a huge international event. I remember how the poor guys from Ukraine tried to do a proper English accent, but ended up chewing every word that contained an “r”. It was really hard to understand them.
Yes, you are right, but to be honest, for me the hardest to understand is British accent, and English is a language that belongs to them. It’s complicated, I’m just very open minded about the accent as long as I understand the words.
Unlike their slogan, they went for something rather safe. Not necessarily bad, though. – Erez Tal is a solid choice, he may not be young and handsome but he’s experienced and charismatic in his own way, and most importantly he doesn’t take himself too seriously. – Bar Refaeli is extremely beautiful, other than that I don’t know what qualifies her to host it. I’m not very happy about her being there, but still hoping to be pleasantly surprised. – Lucy Ayoub is adorable, I really like her. She rose to fame as a Slam-poet, her Slam-Poetry video about her experience… Read more »
All the three choices are great! Lots of people Know Lucy Ayoub – she is brilliant! Also Bar proved long ago that she is great at presenting big reality shows.
Lucy was awful in what I saw of her… If they’re using Bar why can’t they have someone like Ivri Lider as well? That way we all get Eye Candy. And they’re comfortable together, she played his lover in his music video Nesicha Sheli (my princess). Although maybe he’s too shy when speaking English, like when he was with Simon Cowell? or low energy?
The green room hosts don’t really matter, most of the time they cut to them during commercials. They can put one of the lighting operators as a host there and nobody will really care.
This is less and less the case. Green room presenters have more freedom to improvise and thus need to be very well prepared and professional
And yet they have very little screen time. Besides, even with great hosts, all those lame “so how do you feel?” interviews are always the same and not very interesting. Every contestant will reply “I’m so excited” with a horrible accent, there’s not much to it. And when they try to be creative beyond the “how do you feel” interview, it’s somehow always a cringe.
Hell yeah. Perfect choise, i think they will have great chemistry.
I was hoping Shiri Maimon might be in the line-up, but this would be a very tight trio. Good at showing diversity, I think.
Very classy choices. Well done KAN
Bar is pretty, that’s right, but I don’t like her as a host
Plus, a lot of Israelis really hate her, there are better options…
Erez is great, I wanted him to host it from the beginning 🙂
Lucy is a good option as well so just replace Bar and we’re all good to go
Bar has excellent English, I think it is a big factor
She does have good English, but Israeli celebrities who speak good English aren’t hard to come by. Almost all of the other nominees for the gig speak English just as well as Bar, or better. Noa Tishby was my top choice and I’m kinda bummed they didn’t pick her.
Maybe not but the rest I’m not sure, they didn’t live in USA like bar did
Kan television became an official member of EBU
LOL, what non Israelis don’t realize that if Assi and Rotem are chosen to host, a civil war will happen in Israel. half of the people like them, half of the people wish them dead. like, really. they are able to evoke powerful emotions of love and hate among the watchers. they’re like the host version of Netta.
Assi and Rotem wouldn’t work well in a live tv event. They both are in love with themselves and with their own voice, they tend to talk and talk, make their inside silly jokes that no one really understands. They are used to a much more spontaneous hosting manner that is then being heavily edited to make it somehow tolerable and even a bit cute. In Eurovision they will have to stick to the script, which will look forced and unnatural on them, so hiring them loses the point. Plus I think Rotem didn’t even want to audition for hosting… Read more »
Good choice, just wishing for Assi Azar to host the Green room
According to the article on Ynet, Assi Azar may also be involved in hosting alongside Lucy.
I really hope this is true! Fantastic choice if so! I would, however, like to see Asi Assaf and Rotem Sela in the green room…
Well Ynet is also saying Assi Azar might join Lucy for some of the Green Room coverage. Rotem Sela positively said she is not interested in the gig.