Back in the Kdam days, Israel kept us waiting until the final days of the national final season. But nowadays Israel is the early bird of Eurovision. We’ve just learned that their artist national selection — due to begin this October — will double as a song selection. X Factor for Eurovision 2022 will feature a four-act grand final, where the artists will perform their potential Eurovision songs.
X Factor for Eurovision — Israel’s 2022 song selection
Last month, EuroMix.co.il revealed the names of 18 of the participants, sparking early hype around the Eurovision fandom. Now, EuroMix have revealed that a twist has been added to the Israeli take on the X Factor franchise. In the grand final of the contest, which will feature four artists, they will be judged on their performance of the song they would sing at Eurovision 2022 in Italy if chosen.
Format
Most of what we know about the Israel national selection, at this point, is from word-of-mouth. The Israeli broadcaster has yet to officially reveal any information other than the contest’s name and logo. But we know filming has already taken place up until the “Five Chairs” round.
According to a EuroMix exclusive, the show is scheduled to begin in early October. The grand final will take place around January, meaning Israel will once again be one of the first to reveal their entry. The jury will be comprised of Aviv Geffen, Margarit Tsan’ani, Miri Mesika, Eurovision 2018 winner Netta Barzilai, and Ran Danker.
The Israeli Eurovision fansite also revealed that each of the four finalists would perform two songs. Out of the eight, only four would qualify to the final, where Israel will choose their Eurovision 2022 entry.
Song submissions will be open to Israeli songwriters only. The submission period is 19 September to 17 October.
The last time Israel combined their artist selection with a song selection was back in 2016. Then, Hovi Star’s version of “Made of Stars” won the ticket to Stockholm. In 2020 and 2021, Israel had public selections to decide on an entry (after going internal between 2017 and 2019), but they were separate from the artist selection.
I like that we’ll have some sort of a national final in Israel, and a selection of a full package (performer + song). I just hope they do a good job with the songs and staging. The 2016 final was really half-a$$ed.
It turns out that the semi final show revealing the identity of the 4 finalists will be already recorded on September 14th. Lyricists, composers, arrangers, producers and other interested parties can attend the recording as long as they fill in a form and sign a letter of confidentiality. I find it hard to believe that the 4 finalists will remain anonymous until late December/January 2022 when that semi final episode is finally aired. It didn’t bode well for Eden Alene when her potential songs were leaked several times before the official dates of release. It was quite an embarrassment for… Read more »
Leakage is always a risk and I guess you’re right, the identity of the finalists would almost definitely leak, but this sort of information is usually available to people who actively look for it, and I believe most people won’t be so bothered to do that. As for the songs themselves, I really wouldn’t want foreign writers involved, and I’m saying it as an Israeli who obviously wants her country to do well. I don’t mind collabs with foreign writers in principle, it’s just that we’ve seen what type of writers they usually are and what type of music they… Read more »
This year’s winner was on the X Factor, they came second – in 2017, so like Ruth Lorenzo, it was years before their Eurovision success and probably doesn’t prove anything. I think Marco Mengoni is the X Factor winner with the best Eurovision result.
if it is similar to how Germany did it in 2010 (or UK in 2019), I personally don’t really like the format, as both can be considered “covers” without any fixed original version. I prefer a proper national selection (one artist, one song only), at least like Eesti Laul or UMK. oh Gosh, I wish they would bring back and revamp Qdam, it would have been better.
The examples you presented were a winner and a last place lol
As I understand the bid published by KAN, they’ll sing 8 different songs.
I’m pretty sure they’ll give the favorite the best song. It’s funny they are revamping the selection process given how successful they been lately. Why fix something that’s not broken.
Agreed. The producers will most likely give their favourite the perceived “best” song/s. This is the danger of not selecting the singer and song independently. For example in Ireland 2014 the two runners-up did not have a hope, though the whole thing ended in disaster anyway. Wonder how this “format” would have panned out in Malta 2020 with Destiny already the winner before a note was sung (!)
I don’t like this selection method, because it would be normal that those people watching X-Factor week after week may end up voting for their favorite performer and not for the best song to represent Israel. Badwoolfgirl mentioned Georgia, but Spain had a similar issue in their recent Operación Triunfo’s years (though they found a way to make things even worst by allowing duets and singers with more than one entry in the Eurovision gala). And there’s also what Sapphire mentioned, the fact they’re uniting an artist and a song in a rushed and unnatural way.
I feel like this selection mirrors the UK’s 2019 and Germany’s 2017 (and JESC 2020) effort too much. Both of those scenarios, good singers were left with mediocre songs. At the very least, let’s hope the songs are good.
That’s exactly what I was thinking about (and Georgia 2019 too don’t forget), and why a lot of fans are worried. We’ve seen this method fail at Eurovision before, and if the selected songs for Israel’s X factor, aren’t good. Israel could be in trouble next year.
Definitely! At least I’ll still assume it’s not gonna be as bad as their 2011 and 2012 entries though
Hmm, I don’t know about this. I’m skeptical that this will result in a great entry from Israel. We all remember the last time someone went to Eurovision with a talent show composed song (Georgia 2019). Depending on the songs’ quality, we’ll see in the future. I’d hate to see Israel fail to qualify for the first time since 2014, but then again I thought Israel wouldn’t qualify this year until the song got revamped and it did make it through. You never, but good luck.
tbh I’m still surprised how Eden made it through… it was probably just because of that high note…
Georgia’s 2019 was actually quite good even though it didn’t give them the ideal result in Tel Aviv.
And to be fair, the approach that Georgian Idol had with having its finalists paired with a song in the finale is part of the Idol franchise’s DNA (i.e. Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini competing with their own take of “A Moment Like This” in the final of American Idol’s first season).
As for X-Factor, they never quite settled with giving their finalists ready-made original winner-type songs to perform on a consistent season-to-season basis the way Idol has.
Don’t know why some people say flop… For me it all depends of the song, let’s wait and see.
sounds like a recipe for flop
not sure about this one tbh…
Also, I got a question about the format. In the X-Factor Grand Final there’s gonna be 4 people and they’ll each get a song to perform and the eventual winner will represent Israel with that song or are they gonna go with the song the public chooses?
Nobody really knows.. And honestly things might get changed again.
Israel got a marvellous qualification (Q) streak going on since 2015 and based on their other results, a non-qualification (NQ) would start another -negative this time- record. The stats speak by themselves:
2005-2010 – Q with only exception being 2007
2011-2014 – NQ
2015-2021 – Q
You are forgetting that since 2018 Israel is represented by a new broadcaster that is much more flexible in it’s approach than the old and troubled IBA. So even if there will be a fail, it doesn’t mean anything for the upcoming years.
I think you have to consider that only from 2015 onwards were IBA/KAN allowed to have fully English entries. That must’ve played a part in the results.
Note : Turkish singer Linet and also another Turkish Israeli Sabir Sapan (Winner Of The Voice Israel) applied for X Factor acording to some sources
hey , they stated the 18 participants in the article. Check it out 🙂
oh i am so sorry i missed that announcement and all i knew was these two 😀 thank you for the information
Seems like Kan got its act together this time. The fact that each one of the 4 finalists gets to perform 2 songs with one being eliminated just before the final is a nice twist in the plot: not something you’d expect from Israel. It doesn’t mean that the X-Factor is the best vehicle to find the optimal match between a great singer/band and a great song, but at least the song submission process is more flexible than ever before and actually calls for the submission of songs especially written for specific singers and also allows them to submit their… Read more »
Hopefully they will end up with a better entrant than the 2016 one then
Fingers crossed for Linet and Sapir Saban