Israel is giving songwriters another week to send submissions to its national selection for Eden Alene’s Eurovision 2021 song. It’s amid unofficial reports that the broadcaster has only received 70 song submissions — down significantly on last year’s 248.
Eden Alene announced the extension on her Instagram account.
“Excited to tell you that very soon the registration for submitting songs for the Eurovision Song Contest will close — we we will find out together which songs [could represent Israel],” she writes. “If you haven’t yet sent your song in, this is the time! [The submission period] closes October 15. Waiting to see what you guys are making for me!”
Israel: Eden Alene has received 70 Eurovision 2021 song submissions
When it comes to Eurovision, it’s about the quality of song submissions and not the quantity. Ultimately, each artist only sings one song at Eurovision anyway. But Israel needs quantity for another reason: It has plans to stage a 16-song national final. That requires depth and that starts with a healthy pool of submissions.
Back in September, KAN launched the official open call for song entries. Interested songwriters were to send their song to the committee between 16 September and 5 October at 11:00 am, Israel time.
KAN plans to make the 16 shortlisted songs available to the public this November. As previously reported, the public will shortlist eight of the 16 songs, and those songs will go on to compete in the live shows. There will be two semi-finals of four songs each, and a grand final where the four best tunes will battle it out to be Eden’s pick for Rotterdam. All shows are expected to be around 52 minutes long and will take place in February.
And while we don’t yet know who has submitted entries, we do know who most likely hasn’t. Back in May, songwriter Doron Medalie, who wrote Eden’s 2020 entry “Feker Libi”, said that submitting a song for Eden was not a particularly big priority.
Speaking on KAN’s radio show Eurovision 2020 – The True Results, the “Toy” songwriter said he’s not completely against a return, but he’s not overly keen on writing a song. “I don’t think I’m going to write in any way next year… I don’t think it’s mandatory, who knows where we’ll be in a year”.
He also said that “Feker Libi” is “such a fun song, amazing and loved by a lot of people”, making it a tough act to follow.
As well as penning “Feker Libi”, Doron Medalie has also been involved with three of Israel’s past five Eurovision entries — Nadav Guedj’s “Golden Boy”, Hovi Star’s “Made of Stars” and Netta’s “Toy”. He has played a strong role in Israel’s recent Eurovision renaissance, which led to their 2018 win.
Are you excited to hear the shortlisted songs? Are you one of the songwriters who has already submitted? Let us know down below!
they should instead reach out to talented afrobeat producers, there are many out there and that’s clearly a sound eden can pull off amazingly and with total credibility
How many Afrobeat Israeli producers are there? Israel is a country who tend to source their songs 100% local so we have to consider that. Besides, we’re 99.99% sure to have an Afrobeats song from the Czech Republic in Rotterdam, so KAN may want to avoid a possibly unflattering comparison between a genuine Afrobeats song from Benny and an imitation of the genre from an Israeli producer…
YES!!!
I think they clearly didn’t receive good songs so they need more submitted songs.
Feker Libi would’ve qualified, it’s the sound I expect to hear from Israel and this is what they should’ve sent in 2019l
The article is not correct, you need to have an israelian ID in order to submit the song; so international composers are not allowed. I was about to submt a song by I encountered that you need to give your israelian ID info in order to send the song,
Correct
I want us to return to the Heabrew ballads genre.
There’s no need in 16 songs
Don’t forget it also means Eden has to work on 16 performances and actually perform them as well
That’s just too much
They should stick to four, in my opinion
Let’s just hope one of the 70 is good enough 🙂
Eden will only perform the 4 songs that make it to the final show. All 16 acts will be performed by other artists who are either selected by the songwriters or by the producers of the show.
That sounds odd- if the songs are written for Eden it’ll sound strange if others sing them. Roy is right. Four songs should be enough. One artist NFs work best with a small song selection.
It’s not entirely accurate that all 16 selected songs are exclusively written for Eden. Songwriters can send songs that were previously submitted and remained unreleased. This format can either backfire big time or actually provide an opportunity for 16 different songwriting teams to get some recognition. I suppose Kan wants to ‘kill two birds with one stone’ (as horrible as that sounds) by engaging the general public in various elimination rounds by introducing 16 new songs all at once which is unprecedented for an Israeli selection process in recent years. The idea to have those 16 songs presented by other… Read more »
The phrasing of the original open call document regarding song applications from non-Israelis was negligently phrased. This explains why Euromix interpreted it as a green light for non-Israelis to take part. The revised version published more than a week ago on the official website leaves no room for error: each applicant MUST hold an Israeli ID, an Israeli passport or a residence documentation. Foreign nationals are ineligible to take part if they can’t provide such documentation. By the same token, I suspect that KAN’S online voting platform for the first song elimination round will be blocked for viewers outside of… Read more »
It could be that people from outside of Israel will be able to vote. During the 2020 national final voting was via KAN’s app, so you may have to download it + have someone from Israel show you the ropes, because it all in Hebrew.
I’ll gladly do that once the voting method is known
I just want the Best for Eden Alene because
she is amazing as a human and a singer . Hoping
for the best!
The article is not correct. You must have an israelian identity card in order to submit a song, so foreign composers are not allowed to compete. I was going to submit one but in the submission card they asked me for my Israelian ID so I couldnt do It.
Correct
Bit gutted for Doron Medalie actually not throwing any hats into the ring for Eden. Afterall Feker libi featured a lot of languages (plus a bit of conlang hahah), and it was exciting to possibly hear some Amharic on there as well… If not quadrilinguality, I would love to hear at least some of those languages in the other submissions. <3
Doron Medalie is an incredible hit maker, but I kinda hope he doesn’t submit a song for 2021. I don’t think it’s healthy for a country to rely solely on one person, talented as he may be. Medalie really revolutionized the Israeli approach to Eurovision, he helped the Israeli public and decision makers open their eyes and minds and that’s an achievement you can never take away from him. He paved a new road for Israel in Eurovision, and I believe it should be walked by as many talented writers as possible. Medalie should submit songs only if he has… Read more »
I am sure he will. He won’t resist it! 🙂
True. At least Doron works for his own country and doesn’t try to impose himself on other broadcasters.
Oh god no. I also saw he followed the Eurovision: A Second Opinion Insta page and I had very mixed feelings.
Hahahah. Will strive to do so on the next podcast!