Israel has spoken!
Eden Alene has been selected for Eurovision 2020 in a hard-earned battle of teen talent. But will they match a suitable song to her voice ahead of the big show in May?
The Selection Process
Last year Israeli Broadcaster KAN confirmed the plan to again select the Israeli artist through a selection show for Eurovision 2020. "The Next Star for Eurovision" ("HaKochav Haba") started filming in September 2019 and commenced airing twice a week in November. Hosted by Assi Azar (one of the excellent ESC 2019 hosts) together with model Rotem Sela, “Next Star” involved a marathon competition over many weeks to filter through the amazing talent Israel has to offer. “Next Star” was to identify the specific artist that will represent Israel in Rotterdam with the song selection for that winning artist to be chosen through a second competition called “Next Song”.
That final stage to match song to artist shall be decided on 3rd March.
The “Next Star” Grand Final
On 4th February the grand final took place after a marathon of several weeks of auditions and shows. Reflecting the strength of fresh, young talent in Israel, all of the 4 finalists were 19 or younger:
Ella-Lee Lahav (16 years old)
Orr Amrami-Brokman (17 years old)
Eden Alene (19 years old)
Gaya Shaki (17 years old)
After consistently impressing during the heats, Ella-Lee went into the grand final as clear favourite. The grand final show had 2 rounds consisting of head to head performances.
First Round
In the first round the four finalists were paired in two duels. From each duel the contestant with the higher score advanced to the second round. At the end of the first round, one of the remaining two contestants was saved by the viewers and the other contestant was eliminated. Singing a powerful version of “where have you been” Eden ended up being saved by the wildcard from viewers, whilst Gaya was eliminated after her underwhelming performance of “My immortal”.
Second Round
The remaining three contestants then competed in a third duel in the second round. At the end of the duel, each judge allocated twelve points to their favourite, ten points to their runner-up and eight points to their least favourite. In addition to the votes of the judges, 300 points in proportion to the votes of the audience were also allocated to the three contestants. In the end, the contestant with the highest number of points won the competition.
Orr, singing “Haim lhiot bah mehhoav" claimed third place with 158 points
Ella-Lee singing “Roar” was second with 182 points.
And winning both Jury and Public votes, Eden was a clear winner with 260 points, singing a classy and confident rendition of “Halo”.
Eden clearly has the goods to product a strong performance in Rotterdam, but I will look forward to hearing her present a song unique to her voice rather than the well-known mega-hits she performed during this competition.
So, who is Eden Alene?
Eden Alene gained great success during "The Next Star", because of her amazing vocals and performances. The 19 years old Eden was born in Jerusalem, to Israeli-Ethiopian parents and brings a delightful blend of diversity to the 2020 competition. She studied ballet for ten years before moving from a religious school to a secular one and studying theatre and taking voice lessons. She also sang for two years with the YMCA Jerusalem Youth Choir, a mixed choir of Jewish and Arab teens. Eden, who currently is an IDF soldier, has considerable experience in the business, having won the country’s X-Factor reality show in 2018 when she was 17 years old. She has since released several singles, including a cover of Eurovision’s 1976 winner “Save Your Kisses for Me” by Brotherhood of Man. Her 2019 song “When It Comes to You” was recorded in Los Angeles with US producer Julian Bunetta.