After ten long weeks, Israel’s selection for Rotterdam – The Next Star for Eurovision – is finally coming to an end. The two semi-finals took place in Neve Ilan and we now know the four finalists — Eden Alene, Ella Lee Lahav, Gaya Shaki and Orr Amrami-Brockman.
The Next Star for Eurovision 2020
Semi-final 1
Round 1
In the first round, the vote was determined 60% by the public and 40% by the judging panel. With a score of 60%, Ohad Shragai was eliminated. Eden Alene qualified to Round 2 as a wildcard.
- Ella-Lee Lahav – “Only Girl (In the World)” – 91% (votes from all five judges)
- Lali Kolishkin – “Mirrors” – 80% (votes from four judges)
- Eden Alene – “Hayi Shketa” – 64% (votes from two judges)
ELIMINATED: Ohad Shragai – “The Logical Song” – 60% (votes from four judges)
Round 2
In this round, each of the judges gave the three singers 8, 10 or 12 points. The public made up 25% of the result. Ella Lee Lahav and Eden Alene tied for first, and so third place Lali Kolishkin was eliminated.
1. Ella Lee Lahav – “Royals” – 84 points
1. Eden Alene – “Listen” – 84 points
ELIMINATED: Lali Kolishkin – “Writing’s on the Wall” – 72 points
Eden Alene and Ella Lee Lahav qualified to the grand final.
Semi-final 2
Round 1
As in the first semi-final, the voting in this round was 60% public, 40% jury. Moran Aharoni, who was ill and couldn’t hit the high notes, got 66% and found herself out.
- Orr Amrami-Brockman – “Lekh Im Ha’Emet Shelkha” – 83% (votes from four judges)
- Raviv Kaner – “Hallelujah” – 80% (votes from four judges)
- Gaya Shaki – “Wrecking Ball” – 69% (votes from four judges)
ELIMINATED: Moran Aharoni – “Who You Are” – 66% (votes from four judges)
Round 2
As in the first semi-final, the voting in this round was 75% jury, 25% public. Raviv Kaner was eliminated.
- Orr Amrami-Brockman – “Zakhiti Le’ehov” – 86 points
- Gaya Shaki – “Love on the Brain” – 78 points
ELIMINATED: Raviv Kaner – “Gibor Shel Ima” – 76 points
Orr Amrami-Brockman and Gaya Shaki qualified to the grand final, joining Eden Alene and Ella Lee Lahav.
Notably, the four finalists are 17, 18, 19 and 17 years of age respectively. This means that the winner of this edition will be the first Israeli representative born in the new millennium.
Are you happy with the results? Who should win the final? Let us know in the comments below!
Fingers crossed for Orr or Ela
I don’t know why they can’t do a duet with Orr and Ella Lee or Eden. Half English half Hebrew. The best of both worlds. Ella Lee on her own is a mistake, she’s generic American pop. Charismatic with a great voice, but still, it’s not special for Israel to bring American pop.
It’s too late for that. The judges and the producers should have come up with this idea during the early casting calls and auditions for the show. Changing the rules in the middle not to mention at the very end of the season breaks every rule in the game. It’s unfair towards other finalists and can’t be forced down their throats when the only reason they came on this show in the first place was to launch a solo career. You can only hope she is offered original songs which reflect her vitality, dynamism and expressiveness in the best genre… Read more »
Agree with you about Ella Lee being generic American pop. Unfortunately, most Israelis feel otherwise.
We learned tonight that Ella Lee will perform ‘ROAR’ (Katy Perry) while Orr will go for an Israeli song entitled ‘ABA’ (Dad, Father) by Shlomi Shabat. Gaia chose ‘REHAB’ BY Amy Winehouse and Eden Alene went for ‘WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN’ by Rihanna. 3 out of the 4 finalists qualify to the last final round when each will perform a second song. These are undisclosed for now. To be honest, people have already made up their mind no matter what they sing. Early voting started at 22:20 this evening and will continue until the live show starts tomorrow. These votes… Read more »
I think all the finalists are great. In Italy, “Il Volo” was formed after the judges of a reality show suggested these 4 individuals unite to form a very successful group. I suggest they should try the same here. A band with these 4 singers representing Israel would be great!
But the thing is that the 4 finalists are of various genres while those in Il Volo are all opera singers. It’s like you can’t group an orange, a piece of broccoli, an egg and a piece of meat and expect it to be a good combination.
Specifically I’ve had many breakfasts that involved egg, bacon, broccoli and a side of orange lol. But setting aside this absurd analogy I think you’re right :-).
Did you see their performance of “A tribe of brothers and sisters”? They can totally do it. They need a great song to bring it together.
“Hayi Shketa”, not “Heyi Shketa”…
Wow, you’re right! My life was a lie ?
Lali should have make it to the final.
I can’t understand her elimination…
Fantastic voice but zero personality on stage.
Moran Aharoni should have made the final. This absurdity about her losing her voice should Have inspired the judges to create a life line episode like they did for Kobi last season. Between these four I vote for Eden who is absolutely incredible — her performance of Listen brought tears to my eyes (though I recognize the possibility that she and destiny might be matched up against each other for the same votes in the semi). Otherwise I’d also be very very happy with my second choice — Ella Lee. I think what she did with that K-Pop song was… Read more »
The judges don’t make up the rules. The production simply didn’t want to repeat last year’s life line scenario because it lost a lot of credibility over it. Everybody knows it was tailor-made to get Kobi back into the competition due to a massive public outcry. Moran didn’t just lose her voice: It was an allergy that wasn’t diagnosed early enough and the timing couldn’t have come at a worse time. She can always enter in 2021 when a more friendly and equitable selection process will be introduced. Ella Lee just recently quit high school and enrolled into an external… Read more »
Agree re Eden. She would have a legit chance to win. Ella lee is so generic and the rest fall short. No country will have anything like Eden.
I thought Gaia was very polarizing this evening. She got the lowest score from the public while the judges were split over her with three of them giving her 12 points and the other three settling with 8 points. If it weren’t a 75:25 split result in favor of the jury, Raviv would have easily made it into the final. After all he was the public’s second favorite after Orr, but rules are rules. I feel sorry for Moran, especially because it seems like she suffered from a serious vocal chord disorder and not just a simple cold. She handled… Read more »
Gaia mumbles. Beautiful voice, but it’s hard to understand her.
They’re all very talented. The judges need to think strategically as to what will do best in Rotterdam. The type of song that will be written for each of these 4 will likely be different. 1) Ella is probably the safe choice as she has a very flexible range and will likely wind up with something very contemporary radio friendly, but may get lost in the larger ESC. 2) Gaya has a unique quality in the voice and probably will get something more singer-songwriter in the choice of song. 3) Eden will likely get a song more R&B/gospel focused because… Read more »
Good analysis. It’s unclear at this point how much power the judges will have in the 4-round voting system (2 duels, third place duel and a final 3 head-to-head phase). It could change from the first three rounds to the final one. Many viewers assume that the decision is entirely up to them because the hosts announced that ‘The power is up to you’, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. In any case, there will be a preliminary voting phase between Monday evening to Tuesday evening before the show is on the air and then a completely new count… Read more »
Great!
For Ella-Lee to stand out she might be better off going with a small melodic song, rather than a bop. She slayed every time she did that.
Orr might have to sing in English to make an impression on Eurovision.
Gaya on the piano could be magic, but too similar to 2019 winner
And Eden doesn’t touch me. I feel nothing when she sings. A matter of taste, I guess
The thing is… Orr sounds awful in English though, so that wouldn’t really be possible
If it’s an accent issue, the Eurovision stage have graced far worse accents that finished very high. Polina Gagarina (the divine!!!) had a very strong Russian accent, she did really well though.
Shiri Maimon worked really had for her Eurovision performance on her english, and it wasn’t perfect, but it worked!
Orr did well with Senorita, he can work on an english song for sure.
I can’t speak for everyone, but Orr in Senorita was just not good. The way he pronounces Engish words just sounds ugly to me because English is my native language. The other 3 finalists all sing beautifully in English.
Luckily, for most most most Eurovision viewers (and singers!), English in not a native language.
Dear international non-Israelis.
Who do you think would have a better chance in Rotterdam?
I’m trying to decide how to vote.
Since they all have very great qualities it comes down to the songs. I feel like Eden alene would be a dangerous choice since it’s very likely she would end up competing against Destiny and they are both soul singers. Could end up fighting for the same votes.
@frisian you’re right. Eden would be a top 10 or top 5 at eurovision. She could even win with the right song. None of the other ones stand out.
I’m thinking Ella-Lee or Orr. More leaning towards Ella-Lee personally.
Swiss viewer here. Personally think Ella Lee is a tad better than the rest of em. She would need to have a really catchy song and choreography, but she appears to have a character and style choice that is more appealing to me personally.
I happened to see one of her kpop performances the other day on my YouTube feed. She was a blast.
She will probably win
It will be a totally surprise if not. Cant see it happening
Ella 100%
Orr !!
I think Gaya and Ella Lee would do very very well. Please don’t send Orr, he won’t connect with non-israelis.
– USA
I would love to see Orr in Rotterdam
Would love to see Orr and Ella-lee battle it out at the end. Really good final four. I would easily have replaced Eden with Moran Aharoni. Too bad for her.
A long season with lots of talent. This was fun! Good luck all
Don’t think that will happen
Nothing too surprising. They’ve been consistent favorites from the start. Ella-Lee or Orr would be my pick.
I predict Ella Lee will win and will ultimately be similar to Malta 2019 – good enough to make the final but not top 10.
Ella is much much better…and her beauty will hypnotize people to the screen
Take away your home country bias and you will think differently.
Lets agree to disagree and for sure you are in the minority
Fair enough. Let’s agree to disagree. I know I’m in the Israeli minority. Here’s something I encourage you to do. Show the videos these 4 to any non-Israeli friends that you have who have not been following the contest at all. The type of people who will be voting at Eurovision and not influenced by all the hype in Israel. Not a single one of my non-Israeli friends pick Ella Lee or Orr. They mostly pick Eden but also like Gaya. These two stand out as unique. Ella Lee is a standard modern pop singer who doesn’t really take a… Read more »
Its your and your friends opinion only..ella has unique voice and no, there is no other ella in the contest. Eden is good but its another r&b singer. Ella is much more unique imo
Who is your winner?
Malta 2019 was awesome, and far better than bops by more mature female artists. It was the only song besides Soldi that really stuck in my head. Since most people really only remember the top 5 + personal favorite s, who cares about placement… Just gave a good song
You are perfectly entitled to your opinion about the goal for the contest, but the goal for most of the rest of us here is a top placement.
I think ella will bring the best result otherwise i would choose someone else
Isn’t it spelled as Eden Elena?
Nope. Common misconception though.
Ella lee for the win…and i mean not in israel, in rotterdam!!! she can do it..just give her good song
I’d love for Israel to at least make the top ten again.