Israel have quite an interesting history in the Eurovision Song Contest noting that they are known for bringing about innovative ideas to the competition having been the first ever country to host a female conductor way back in the edition of 1974, when Ilanit performed the track Ey Sham which ended up finishing in fourth place. Nevertheless, in recent years it seems that success has not been on the agenda for the nation especially following the fact that they have not made the final since the beautiful ballad Milim was performed by Harel Skaat way back in 2010. They decided to select their entry internally earlier this year but nevertheless, it was not well received so to speak with Izabo and their entry Time finishing in thirteenth place in the semi-final. Thus, following two disappointments in a row, the Israeli broadcaster, IBA will be hosting a high profile national final.

Next years' national final procedure will be very much the same as the Norsk Melodi Grand Prix thus comprising of around thirty artists split up in three semi-finals, ten in each one with the top three of each round making it through to the final phase of the selection. From all of the entries that fail to make through automatically, there will be yet another competition, with the public selection another one making it ten entries in the final in total. It is to be noted though that Norway has not been successful in the past two years as well despite the fact that they were favourites in 2011 with Stella Mwangi and Haba Haba and also Tooji and his track Stay in 2012. This will be quite an interesting process actually especially for a country like Israel whose best attempts at national finals came through the typical Kdam process which was only a grand gala night. Stay tuned to escflashmalta.com as we follow this brand new selection process.

Source: Ynet.co.il