Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002

Israel’s participation in the 2002 contest was initially uncertain. After Tal Sondak’s “Ein Davar” finished 16th in 2001, the rules then in force appeared to exclude countries placing 16th or lower from the following competition. Ynet explained that the field combined the previous year’s top 15 with returning countries, while protected places for larger broadcasters had left only 22 available positions. At a Eurovision committee meeting in Estonia, Israeli Broadcasting Authority representative Amnon Barkai requested an increase from 22 to 23 countries. The committee instead recommended a 24-country field, including Israel and Portugal, although the proposal still required approval from the European Broadcasting Union’s television committee.[4]

The selection process subsequently moved forward. On November 26, 2001, the Israel Broadcasting Authority selected Hadad as Israel’s representative; the Jewish Women’s Archive reports that she submitted four songs and that fellow Mizrahi singer Zehava Ben also contended for the position.[1] A special 14-member committee appointed by the broadcasting authority’s plenary selected “Nadlik Beyachad Ner” in December 2001. Yoav Ginai wrote the lyrics and Tzvika Pik composed the music.[5] The song’s planned debut on Meni Pe’er’s television program was postponed for a week because of a strike by the authority’s engineering workers.[5]

Sarit Hadad is one of Israel’s most popular singers.[6] Born in Afula in 1978 as the youngest of eight children, she taught herself to play guitar, organ, and percussion and began performing at local clubs as a child. Impresario Avi Guetta discovered her when she was 16.[7] Her music in the mid-1990s followed the Mediterranean or Eastern pop tradition, while her vocals set a standard that other singers sought to emulate. After building her reputation on Israel’s Eastern music club circuit, she broke into mainstream Israeli culture with her 1998 album “Ḥok ha-Ḥayyim” (“The Law of Life”).[7]

The Israel Broadcasting Authority’s choice of Hadad followed a broader trend of sending established, well-known singers to Eurovision.[8] In a pre-contest interview, Hadad said she had initially favored the more upbeat “Mr. DJ” as Israel’s entry. She later concluded that “Nadlik Beyachad Ner” was better suited to the circumstances and said she was ready to perform it wholeheartedly.[3]

“Nadlik Beyachad Ner” (“Light a Candle”) was written by lyricist Yoav Ginai and composed by Tzvika Pik.[2][5] Their partnership had an important Eurovision precedent: Ginai and Pik had previously collaborated on “Diva,” performed by Dana International, which won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998.[2]

The lyrics move from images of darkness, uncertainty, and a long night without consolation toward an invitation to collective hope through lighting candles together. The English refrain includes the lines “A thousand candles in the dark / Will open up our hearts.”[5]

The 47th Eurovision Song Contest final was held at Saku Suurhall in Tallinn on May 25, 2002, with 24 participating countries.[1] Israel was tenth in the running order.[5] Reflecting later on the pressure of the performance, Hadad contrasted Eurovision with a two-hour concert at Caesarea, where she could settle into the show after her initial nervousness. At Eurovision she had only one song to deliver and felt as if “all of Israel was sitting on my shoulders.”[8]

Shortly before the contest, Globes reported that Hadad had prepared for what the publication characterized as aggressive media coverage in Estonia and had arranged translation services.[9]

Israel received 37 points and placed 12th in the 24-country field.[1][10] The result became one episode in Hadad’s wider career rather than its endpoint. Encyclopaedia Judaica records that she attained and maintained megastar status in Israel and performed in Europe and the United States.[7] The Center for Israel Education also notes that she was later named Israeli Music TV’s Best Female Singer of the 2000s.[6] The Jewish Women’s Archive has retrospectively described “Nadlik Beyachad Ner” as remembered for its message of maintaining hope during difficult times.[1]

Israel joined the European Broadcasting Union in 1957 and first entered the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973, becoming a regular participant.[11] In a broad interpretation not limited to the 2002 entry, Shayna Weiss of the Jewish Review of Books argues that Israel’s Eurovision participation reflects the Zionist aspiration of normalization—establishing a Jewish country that is “a country like any other.” She characterizes Eurovision as “a deeply political activity disguised as a campy contest.”[11]

A 2020 Mako retrospective characterized “Nadlik Beyachad Ner” as a song perhaps better suited to Holocaust Remembrance Day or Hanukkah.[8] That was the retrospective writer’s assessment, not a documented explanation of the song’s intent from Ginai or Pik.

A 2025 Maariv TMI retrospective reported that Swedish journalists had alleged in 2002 that “Nadlik Beyachad Ner” was copied from a Swedish children’s song called “Frederiksson the Bear.” Composer Tzvika Pik rejected the allegation outright. Maariv presented the matter as an allegation and denial, not as an established finding.[12]