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Israel: Mixed emotions and reactions to final result
The partial success of the Israeli entry, of qualifying to final and then only reaching the 16th place, was received, in general, with disappointment. The most prominent person, who came forward against the IBA's approach to the contest was Yizhar Cohen, who won the 1978 song contest in Paris. In interviews to Israel Hayom newspaper and walla.co.il, a leading website he says: "I think Noa and Mira are talented and they gave a wonderful performance, but for this sort of event we should chose more adequate performers. We try to convey messages and be polite, while the rest of the countries send their biggest stars". Cohen suggests to bring back the open national final Kdam Eurovision. "We should stop treating the Eurovision Song Contest with disrespect and arrogance. I was taught that if you particiapte in a contest, you must aim to be the winner. Either you give your best try or you don't take part at all".
IBA's seniors tried yesterday to defend the way the 2009 entry was selected. "We also failed in the contest with entries, which were chosen in the Kdam Eurovision in the past", says Noam Gil'or, of IBA's radio, who was a member of the committee which selected Noa and Mira. "'Abanibi ' and 'Hallelujah' were chosen in the national song festival, but that was 30 years ago, whereas 'Diva' was internaly selected back in 1998. I can't say I mourn and grief over the poor result. Eurovision is no longer a serious event, although it is a nice platform to convey a message, which we have done. You don't necessarily always need to win", says Gil'or.
Yoav Ginay, head of entertainment at IBA, reacted in a similar way: "Naturally, I am also quite disappointed with the final result. Nevertheless, I know we gave a wonderful performance, so I am confident our mission was successful", says Ginay. "As every year, we (at IBA) will convene to analyze the outcome of our entry. We might decide to bring the national final next year, although this method wasn't always successful either. Last year we reached the 9th place with the same method as this year".
Although the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest did not manage to attract the media's massive attention, before the contest, when it did receive coverage, it was not as ridiculed as in previous years. Ynet.co.il, the biggest news website in the country, posted a critique after the first semifinal, mentioning that for the first time in a long while, the contest is truly respectable with 'decent songs' particiapting. The popular local music channel '24' dedictaed the Eurovision 5 hours on Saturday's afternoon, with a live broadcast, featuring live performances of former participants.
The final of the Eurovision Song Contest achieved an avarage market share of 18,4%, with peaks of 20,8% during Noa and Mira's performance and 24% after midnight (local time). This is a rather low figure than of several previous contests, such as the ones of 2002 and 2005, when the average figure was above 40%. A possible explanation is the fact that more than a 1,5 million native Russians live in Israel. They may have chosen to watch the contest through Russia's Channel One, the host broadcaster, which is received in national cables and satellite companies.
Will IBA truly draw sincere conclusions for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest? It is still very early days to say. What is certain, is that the stock market for next year's entrant has already been opened. Coincidently, Har'el Ska'at, who was initially selected by the IBA for Moscow and had to withdraw, due to a legal dispute with his former record label, released his new single today. Ska'at has finaly resolved all the problems, which prevented him from going to Moscow, so now he is back in the race, only this time to Norway 2010.
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Yasmin Levi would be fantastic for 2010 she has a very powerful voice.
no please no Kdam. this is not working good. except of Shiri (2005),Israelis choose the winner of the kdam's in a very bad taste (2006-Eddie Buttler,2001-Tal Sindak ). this are 2 out of 3 Kdam results since televoting has taken place. and we made mistake choosing not a right songs.
now....Israel should make a private Kdam but only to a very known as a good live stage preformer artists.
all IBA supose to do is to aproach 4 months before Eurovision to one of the artists i give here in a list,that they will have time to search and work on a real good songs.
THE ARTISTS SHOULD REPRESENT ISRAEL AT 2010 ARE:
Alabina (Ishtar).
Harel Skaat
Maya Buskila
Ninet Tayeb
Adi Cohen
Miri Mesika
Yasmin Levi (a new singer but amazing, you must look for her in youtube to understand what im talking about).
Mosh Ben-Ari
please IBA, dont make a mistake and aproach Amir Fey-Gutmann or Michal Amdurski. maybe they know how to shake and look great but they are horriable singers.
I disagree with Izhar Cohen's proposal to bring back the Kdam. Televised selections are a good method for chosing the national entry only in the countries where Eurovision is popular and respected enough, which it is not in Israel. I doubt very much that the beautiful Noa would have taken part to a Kdam. The same happens in France : Patricia would never have taken part to a national final. Even if the song was not catchy enough to win, Israel can be proud for a classy performance this year and I voted several times for the girls on Saturday !
Pleeeezzzee!
Harel Ska'at for Israel - Norway 2010
He will be the one to make it happen - Israel 2011
Israel imo was one of best entries and i would have placed it Top5 for sure. Look at the jury voting ! It was number 9. There you go.
16th was a good result for Israel this year. The song's message
was great, the performance okay but the song as a whole just
average and not catchy enough. To be honest I liked last year's
song much more!
Oh please, they never even should have qualified. The song was ugly, Noa sang awfully and there were far better songs like Macedonia, Belgium, Belarus and even Andorra.
SARIT HADAD FOR 2010 
This year's israeli entry had class and deserved a higher position in my opinion!
maybe we shall start making a long kdam eurovision( 5 weeks) like in many other countries. it will be an annual event and people and "stars" will be more interested in sending songs.
if budget is the problem why not coperate with channel 2 like in 2008??? there are so many relity programs which take months, like "big brother" so why not make the kdam a sort of reality program?
the song was fantastic!!! one of the best we had... so, what are you talking about???? it impossible that 25 countries will be in top 5, especially, when the level this year was so high. i also wonder why people in France are so sad for the 8th place they got?? strange.
something i can't understand is how the voting in the semi final were so different to the final.. for ex: Sweden and also my country, Israel. did the expert juries were so bad for the songs which were regarded as more quality songs?? i thought it would be the opposite
To all the israeli pepole here:
You need to be sham on you that the fans in abroud soport in
israely song more then you.
Where is your patriotizim?
most of the isralis agrees the 16th place is a good place for this avarage song and for sure IBA and everybody else knew it wont get a great result by sending them,its a miracle they made it to the final. anyway I hope next year we will send a song in purpose to win.
Noa and Mira Awad were great!
In my opinion, one of the best entries this year. I voted for it.
Faruk Ajdinović :"beautifull song... i voted for it ... Such nice lyrics... "
So faruk ,why in your profile you write that you hate this song?
Any way if you realy vote for us -thank you and thanks to the 8
points from bosnia who become a realy good friend of israel.
Israel is arrogant!
Most countries can't expect to do well every year. Israel made it to the final and 8 countries from the first semi didn't. 9 countries did worse than Israel in the final, so it isn't such a terrible result. The competition was really tough this year. Better luck next year
I liked their song very much! I didn't vote for it like i didn't vote for many other songs i really liked. I only voted for those who made the best impression on me...B/H, France and Greece.
Let's not forget that 24 songs in the final is a lot and there were so many of those worth voting for!
I agree, 16th was good.
16th was a reasonable result.
The song was the definition of "meh". Not terrible but not special, just there. And a lot of people will find message songs rather contrived.
I wish Israel will send next year Harel Ska'at.
he will bring us the victory ! 
IBA can only blame themselves. The problem is not whether you chose the song internally or through the Kdam. The main problem of the IBA is that in recent years they always wait to the very last moment to decide who will represent the country and how will the song be chosen.
Under such circumstances, the singers are under the pressure of composing/finding a sing, as well as recording it, within about 4 weeks. Well, if you look for a good song, it is a tough mission. With such a time limit most chances that compromises will be made just to keep to the impossible time table. this year is an excellent result of such pressure. Mira and Ahinoam could have come up with a much better song and not the medicore Kdam songs they came up with.
The IBA should change its approach and just like in the 80's - 70's anounce aleady in September how the song will be chosen/who will be the artisit to represent Israel, and ask the public for sending the songs. If they will let a process of writing and finding songs for several months, potentially, better songs could be found.
IBA should also change their approach to the ESC in a manner they should understand that this was the ESC of 2009 not 1979, and the kind of songs and performances are completely different than we had 30 years ago. songs and performances should also be chosen accordingly.
i liked the song very much
the song was rather good and the show was great, the girls have amazing voices and gave it all. i was really convinced by Israel 2009 and I agree it is a sad 16th place only but hey, that's not a reason to just quit. Each selection has its own good sides. You just need to figure out what should work for 2010. Surprisingly enough, all the past winners since 2006 won in big national finals back home before winning esc.
Anyway i liked so many songs but I have voted for just one.
I really liked Israel's entry this year, but I guess the song wasn't instant enough for Eurovision success. You also have to remember that they were in the cursed 2nd slot in the running order. In fact, over the last 20 years the song performed 2nd in the final has only had a top ten finish 4 times (96, 97, 02 and 03), and in the era of semi-finals, Israel has actually managed the best result this year:
2004 - Austria - 21st
2005 - UK - 22nd
2006 - Moldova - 20th
2007 - Spain - 20th
2008 - UK - 25th
2009 - Israel 16th
So all in all, it's like a mini-victory for Israel! I wonder how long they can keep the record for, hehe.
France gave 10 points to Israel, more than every other country. Noa is indeed very popular in France, and this is also significant of the links between France and Israel... Unfortulately, Israel doesn't always return the points...
How can Izhar Cohen suggest that Israel did not choose two stars to represent them! These two ladies were wonderful, their song was classy and they deserve our respect.
Not all countries can win, and taking part with a song like this in itself is something the Israeli can be proud of!
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