On Tuesday, Israeli broadcaster KAN released an exciting announcement: Noa Kirel will represent Israel in 2023. While many fans were quick to celebrate the news, others doubted why the artist announcement came so early. And now it seems that their unease may be justified.
In an interview with 103 FM’s Raz Shechnik, the Israeli representative-to-be distanced herself from the announcement. Though Eurovision.tv have already unveiled her as the Israeli artist, the 21-year-old said it isn’t certain: “We’ll make a decision later on”.
Noa Kirel not yet confirmed for Eurovision 2023
In true Israeli fashion, Israel’s confirmed representative for Eurovision 2023 is already serving drama…and might be pulling out. Noa Kirel, whose participation was met with a highly positive response within the Eurovision fanbase on Monday, has quelled the rumours by confirming that the decision hasn’t been made yet.
On Monday morning, the KAN committee debated 78 potential artists to represent Israel. They picked — unanimously, according to KAN — Noa Kirel. Probably out of excitement that the artist had previously said yes, KAN prematurely revealed her as the Israeli representative. However, in a radio segment that aired Tuesday evening, Kirel clarified that nothing is set in stone.
A video from the interview opens with interviewer Raz Shechnik saying: “We’re minute[s] after the exciting Eurovision announcement, and we still haven’t heard what you have to say”. She replied: “You’re right, I’m still taking the whole thing in. First of all, it’s a great honour that they chose me. It’s really exciting, and as a kid I always watched [the contest]. So there’s something very grand about it, a lot of responsibility on my shoulders. I’m not taking this whole thing in yet. I’m taking a few days off to understand […] what’s happening. It’s a really big deal. Right now, I’m concentrating only on [my upcoming concert].”
The interviewer then led Noa back to the topic. “But everyone is asking, did she say yes? Did she say no? Does she want to go? Does she not?”, he asked. Noa laughs nervously and her response is hesitant. “This just happened and we’re still in the middle of this whole thing. My team and I will take some time to figure it all out. Together, we will make a decision, slowly. The interviewer then quickly interjects: “So, May 2023. Noa Kirel at Eurovision?”. She answers: “Maybe. Maybe”.
Next in line: Mergui
Anyone who followed Israel’s Eurovision 2018 selection, or knows current Israeli pop music, will recognise this name. Mergui, who placed second to Netta in Next Star for Eurovision, and also happens to be Noa Kirel’s ex-boyfriend, lost to Noa Kirel in the internal selection by only one point, according to a report by Eran Swissa.
If Noa Kirel turns down the offer to go to Eurovision eventually, Mergui will be invited. Chen Aharoni, who wrote Israel’s 2021 entry and participated in the Israeli selection a couple of times, made the following prediction in the comments: “Both Noa and Mergui will turn down the offer, and so will the third-placer”.
What do you think? Will Noa represent Israel at Eurovision, will it be Mergui, or someone else? Let us know in the comments!
The thing is, people got tired of the same recyled recipe year by year from Israel… Golden Boy, then IMRI, then Netta… Then Eden with Set me free, now Ben. I think it’s getting repetitive an Israel won’t qualify. They should try something new, a new approach. Maybe a ballad, maybe a boy band, but not the same up-tempo banger with oriental hook. We got tired of that old record, played since 2015 until this year. Make a change!
Apparently doron medali(toy, golden boy, some hits from eleni foureira) is in talks to be part of the delegation. I think that is a sign that noa will be there. And with an uptempo banger probably.
Publicity stunt. This is getting boring.
I do think she’s just trying to hold it. I believe she refers to her entry when she says it is still in the middle. And when she says “maybe” i take it as she still needs to “believe” she’ll be on that stage as there’s too much time until May 2023 arrives.
Why not Inbal Bibi, or Sapir Saban?
lol
lol
lol
XDDDD
Always drama from Israel…
I don’t think there’s drama just yet (as an Israeli)
I really do believe they’re just gonna see if they can get everything they want, which will probably mostly be artistic independence for Noa and her team
I don’t quite see a reason for her to say no after all of this, though I have no idea why they announced it so early
I think the early announcement is meant to make more people look her up, there are no other artists announced yet so she gets all the attention. Plus, opposed to all the recent Israeli representatives she actually has a lot of released material that people can check out.
she’s been trying to break out internationally with her recent english singles with little success. eurovision would be a golden chance for her, she’dn better not waste it.
It’s a big risk just as much as it is an opportunity, and people need to understand that.
Not so much a risk with a good song .
Omg, don’t tell me it’s another “diva”/drama queen
the return of MOMMY Dana International please, and my votes are going obviously to Israel, me the no.1 Dana International superfan, #DingDongwuzrobbedofthewin
No.
As an Israeli I would advise this site to avoid covering the usual Israeli media drama like the “Michael Ben David might withdraw from esc” from last year. She was officially confirmed by kan so for now that’s all you need to know.
There are just always a handful of countries (including, but not limited to: Albania, Azerbaijan, either of the Hellenic countries, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Ukraine, and the UK) that always have SOME kind of drama every year. I think the reason countries with good entries sometimes slip under the radar is because they don’t give the fans any gossip material lol. The UK this year was the one big exception to the usual rule because for once they had no drama whatsoever!
(Some of these more than others, of course – Lithuania’s and Germany’s are mostly just “so-and-so withdrew after the NF artists were announced” or “so-and-so was the favorite to win but they didn’t.” Versus Albania or Ukraine where it feels like every year there’s at least one NF or artist-related scandal that makes things in the fandom miserable for like a week and a half).
Not to mention that her American label “Atlantic records” has already given the OK for this move and it was most likely that such an announcement wasn’t done without having an initial approval from Noa and her team.
My guess is that the hesitation thing is only to keep an option for withdrawal, in the unlikely event that her team won’t see eye to eye with KAN, down the road, when it comes to song selection, production etc.
The way I see understand it, this is a done deal!
Yeah, like I said, she’s covering her ass
So true… our media is full of fake news
Hmm I don’t think she will say no. And when I say she I mean her managers(atlantic records).
Well, if she doesn’t accept after KAN got ahead of themselves announcing her, Israel’s 2023 bid will have started on the wrong foot. We could even have a variation of the MARUV scenario with Israel having to pull out due to nobody wanting to be “plan B”.
which would be interesting, since rumours had it Israel should pull out after the unhappy events this year.
Fingers crossed, I suppose. I feel like she’s less hedging and more trying to slow the hype train down before it accelerates too quickly. It IS only July, after all, and when she has plenty of other projects on the docket I don’t think she wants something relatively far in the future to supersede them. Don’t freak out until there’s cause to freak out. I’m sure Israel will have a great representative somehow. Even if they keep working down the list, they’ll probably find someone worthwhile in a field of 78 proven artists…I’d like to think. (Also it would be… Read more »
Cannot open your link for Eran Swissa as it is a private account. So what does Eran Swissa say about the selection? How do you know the placement of the artists if it was a secret vote?
Who is on the list in third place? Why announcing anything if nothing is in stone? Where is the purpose?