Michael Ben David Israel IM Eurovision 2022 rehearsal
Photo: EBU / NATHAN REINDS

Israel is ditching X Factor as its national selection. Instead, its Eurovision 2023 artist will be selected behind closed doors in an internal selection. KAN revealed the news on their official Twitter account.

Israel: Eurovision 2023 singer will be chosen by internal committee

“KAN is getting ready for Eurovision 2023!”

“Israel’s next representative for the Eurovision Song Contest will be selected by a professional committee: 9 members, who will reflect a wide range of music styles.”

“Following the selection of the representative, a process will begin for the selection of the song.”

It’s not yet clear whether the song selection process will be done publicly, perhaps through a televised TV show, as was done for Eden Alene in 2021, or through another internal selection, as was done for Nadav Guedj, Imri Ziv and many others.

Israel at Eurovision 2022

Israel used X Factor as its selection method for its Eurovision 2022 song and artist. After over three months of auditions and shows, the grand final saw the final four artists – Inbal Bibi, Michael Ben David, Eli Huli, and Sapir Saban – battling for the ticket to Turin.

All four performed one cover of their choice and their Eurovision entry.

As you’ll recall, four finalists competed in two duels and then a second chance round. Three of them then moved onto the final where they performed their potential Eurovision song.

In an earlier show they had each performed two different potential Eurovision songs and the public and a jury chose which song they’d sing in the final.

The (somewhat convoluted) process resulted in Michael singing “I.M” at Eurovision. The song underwent a revamp ahead of the contest, but it wasn’t enough to reach the final.

Israel finished 13th, having come 11th with the jury and 13th with the public.

Do you think this is a smart move from Israel? Do you hope that the public will have a say in the song selection? Let us know in the comments box below!

53 Comments
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Ritoli
Ritoli
2 years ago

Perfect! Goodluck.

Sam
Sam
2 years ago

So glad Israel is taking this path, I was worried we’d only see new talent being sent to represent Israel and never any of their amazing established artists. Let’s have something ethnic like Idan Raichel or A-WA please!

potaxio
potaxio
2 years ago
Reply to  Sam

Even Dennis Lloyd would be cool!

Laura
Laura
2 years ago
Reply to  Sam

Yes! I need A-WA at Eurovision

Sir Stevia
Sir Stevia
2 years ago

Off topic but the live on tapes are gonna start getting released tomorrow : )

Ixuxu
Ixuxu
2 years ago

Rooting for Noa Kirel

Eurovision fan
Eurovision fan
2 years ago

X Factor is literally the worst way to choose the representative for Eurovision

Yudhistira Mahasena
2 years ago

Israel has a ton of singers to pick if they decide to go internal next year:

  1. Ninet Tayeb
  2. Lior Narkis
  3. Ori Ben Ari
  4. Eden Ben Zaken
  5. Eden Hason
  6. Roni Dalumi
  7. Noam Dadon (he competed at Junior Eurovision 2018 and now he’s 17 years old)
  8. Adi Bity (the former Kids.il member)

Hopefully one of them will give a better result than Michael Ben David… people today have no taste in music and that’s why Michael was eliminated…

Dawid
Dawid
2 years ago

No, that’s the reason he was chosen

Sir Stevia
Sir Stevia
2 years ago

No. An ESC representation should be given to someone who hasn’t blown up yet.

Sir Stevia
Sir Stevia
2 years ago
Reply to  Sir Stevia

Not sure why the dislikes. I just prefer famous people to not be sent to ESC.

Mph
Mph
2 years ago
Reply to  Sir Stevia

I mean, I’m not from Israel, but I’d personally prefer someone who’s already well-known (and current) in my country to represent us rather than sending in talent-show rejects, straight-out-of-X Factor or someone that no-one locally has heard of before unless the song is exceptionally good. It just makes this contest feel like it’s taken more seriously IMO. Israel has been sending in singers straight-out-of-talent shows since 2015 and it about time they send someone bigger and current for next year (Anna Zak, Noa Kirel etc).

ete sech
ete sech
2 years ago

It’s sad that they had to have this year’s outcome, but I’m glad they came to their senses.
Israel has quite a nice talent pool they can pick their future representatives from, so I’ll be looking forward to seeing how this pans out! 🙂

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
2 years ago

Choosing your Eurovision artist based on a reality-esque TV show is never a good move. The audience for these shows take in consideration things that are irrelevant to Eurovision success, such as the backstories of the contestants. It was a disaster for Spain in 2018 and 2022 was a disaster for Israel considering the quality of songs that was in their national final.

Sir Stevia
Sir Stevia
2 years ago
Reply to  Briekimchi

Picking a singer from a reality-esque show worked for us in 2015, 2016, 2017 sorta and 2021. It gave us a win in 2018 so. The next star was great, x factor sucked.
I’d stick with the next star but I’m good with internal.

Eli Grant Weinmann
Eli Grant Weinmann
2 years ago

I’m confused. I thought Israel was going to launch a new national selection for 2023. Am I missing something?

Sir Stevia
Sir Stevia
2 years ago

Cyprus is doing that, not Israel.

Eli Grant Weinmann
Eli Grant Weinmann
2 years ago
Reply to  Sir Stevia

Ahhh, thanks!

Alex
Alex
2 years ago

lol no surprises there. Their new approach this year failed big time.

Internal selection is really the best way to proceed. They also chose Toy internally.

I’d also love to see a known name represent Israel or have their national final Kdam return but with a new version and voting.

Polegend Godnova
2 years ago

i really miss their kdam national final, but this is a good way to go.

Thallo
Thallo
2 years ago

Honestly, an internal selection for Israel sounds AMAZING!

Ella Lee and Anna Zak would absolutely kill it at Eurovision. Israel has an insane amount of talent for such a small country, so they have a huge selection of artists to choose from. I’m pretty sure Israel will win again in a couple of years if they do go with an internal selection.

Dani
2 years ago
Reply to  Thallo

Anna Zak can’t sing live, and for the other pop girls I don’t think they would be interested as they’re “too famous” for that.

Vivian
Vivian
2 years ago

Cool, I hope this is the first step towards ESC countries no longer using lazily slapped together national finals instead of properly choosing an artist with a song specifically tailored for them. I hope Denmark, Croatia and Germany take notes

Jack
Jack
2 years ago

Makes sense, imagine if they end up again with someone that is trashy, desperate for attention and harasses contestants. Better to choose someone who is a true professional

Trom
Trom
2 years ago

Ok, Its maybe off topic and wiwiblogs doesnt allow me to add this coment somehow but here is a possibility that Slovakia might come back for 2023 :O

ete sech
ete sech
2 years ago
Reply to  Trom

Where did you hear that!? 😮

Trom
Trom
2 years ago
Reply to  ete sech

“RTVS the Slovakian broadcaster could still decide to return to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023 according to”

…. I cant put here the link or the name of other side, my comments are always deleted but copy this and u will find the Pages 🙂

hannah
hannah
2 years ago
Reply to  Trom

nope, broadcaster said they’re not returning, financial and low viewing figures related reasons

Trom
Trom
2 years ago
Reply to  hannah

But then they still waiting for a new elections of a new boss in a RTVS …so they said they can still come back after 10 years, same happened when they withdraw in 1999 and came back in 2009, now 2013 – 2023. Before, every year they said imediately – they are not coming back. But we will see. Now after Hungary, Russia and Belarus is out, Possibility of Czech and Macedonia to be out are also high… so maybe Slovakia, Turkey could be back and Lichtenstain might be too

Raoul
Raoul
2 years ago

As an Israeli, I am ok with this. Clearly MBD was way out of his depths here – not so much as a performer (he actually did well on that department) but overall. The recent process took young artists at the very beginning of their career and threw them on the biggest stage of the world. Granted, it worked with Netta (and with Nadav Guedj) but it’s a risk and honestly unfair to the artists.

Raoul
Raoul
2 years ago
Reply to  Raoul

(Eden Alene and Hovi Star also performed well, of course. I did not wish to imply that the artists were not up to the task. In fact, it is quite shocking how capable they all were – even Imri Ziv and Kobi Merimi.)

Paul
Paul
2 years ago

At least they won’t have the same level of embarrassment they got from this years entry

Sir Stevia
Sir Stevia
2 years ago

My country is going eternal?! Huh. Cool : )

Sir Stevia
Sir Stevia
2 years ago
Reply to  Sir Stevia

Internal* Stupid uneditable wiwi comments lol.

Joe
Joe
2 years ago

I honestly think this is smart, since this at least helps ensure that the artist is coming to the contest with their own vision and could very well be an established name that can represent Israel in a good way on the international stage. Their selection this year was a whole mess. (At some point, they really ought to just do the Kdam again, but I imagine they really need to get established Israeli artists more invested in competing before they can bank on a lot of them wanting to participate. It’s like trying to relaunch the National Songfestival: yeah,… Read more »

Sir Stevia
Sir Stevia
2 years ago
Reply to  Joe

I think we should have stuck with the next star but I’m good with an eternal selection.

Tiny_Lebowski
Tiny_Lebowski
2 years ago
Reply to  Sir Stevia

internal*

Sir Stevia
Sir Stevia
2 years ago
Reply to  Tiny_Lebowski

Yeah. Ty.

raylee
raylee
2 years ago

Cyprus with national final , Israel with internal selection. Seems like things are about the change.

Nikki
Nikki
2 years ago

I’m not feeling this idea. Let’s be honest, if we check the last three years Top 3, and even counting how messy the Vidbir was, all of them were either National Final winners or Internal Selection chosen alongside the song, and all of them with the exception of Sergey and Chanel (so 7 out of 9), were heavily involved in the composition of the song. I can see their reasons to do it, most of us had IM at the bottom of the barrel, but choose someone and then slap them with some song you just got from God knows… Read more »

Alo
Alo
2 years ago
Reply to  Nikki

Nobody said how they will choose the song.. Maybe the artist will be involved

David
David
2 years ago

I hoped Israel would go back to the KDAM, a contest to select a contestant, similar to in Scandinavia.

Alo
Alo
2 years ago

Selecting an artist first before song is wrong. But in reality, many established artist in Israel would never agree to compete in a national selection unfortunately. So, that’s the time to bring someone with more experience.

willchrisiam
willchrisiam
2 years ago
Reply to  Alo

What’s this obsession with established artists? Being famous in your country means nothing. Barbara Pravi, Gjon’s Tears, Go_A, Chanel, Sam Ryder, Duncan Lawrence, Cornelia Jacobs, Daði og Gagnamagnið, The Roop, Måneskin, Mahmood and so many fan favorites who did really good weren’t established. Focus on the song and the staging packet rather than an overpriced name.

Alo
Alo
2 years ago
Reply to  willchrisiam

I know Israel so I doubt this will happen.

Maya G
Maya G
2 years ago
Reply to  willchrisiam

I believe that by “established artists” they mean someone who’s generally known by the Israeli public and has *some* experience and artistic vision, Not necessarily someone who has a long career behind them, so equivalents of most of the names you mentioned are possible. I guess they’ll aim for someone popular in order to generate buzz, but they’ll factor Eurovision potential and suitability into the selection.
I do agree that the song is most important and wish they selected a full package of a song + artist.

Esc addict
Esc addict
2 years ago

Sad, I liked to see the israelian selection since years now, it was always epic and with quality songs. It means already one less NF for the next season.

Safiya
Safiya
2 years ago

I don’t like selections when the artist is chosen before the song. Whether it’s public or internal, choosing the artist first never makes sense to me.

Trom
Trom
2 years ago
Reply to  Safiya

S10/Duncan/CommonLinets/Saara Alto/Eleni has left the chat

Juju
Juju
2 years ago
Reply to  Trom

Duncan was selected together with Arcade. He was just announced as an artist before the song got officially released.

Max
Max
2 years ago
Reply to  Juju

s10, too

And Fuego was chosen before a matching singer was picked

Safiya
Safiya
2 years ago
Reply to  Trom

I am not saying that this method can’t be successful. I am just saying that it makes less sense to me than choosing a song.

Maya G
Maya G
2 years ago
Reply to  Safiya

Netta was selected before Toy was even written, but in principle I agree.
Selecting a full package makes much more sense, and I believe they’re selecting an artist first not purely for professional reasons, but rather because they want to give the public the feeling that they have a say by throwing a televised national final of 3 or 4 songs, which is quite risky IMO.