Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Israel first entered Eurovision in 1973 and finished fourth among 17 contestants.[5] Its previous victories came in 1978, 1979 and 1998, making the 2018 result its fourth overall and its first in 20 years.[1][2] Participation is tied to membership in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an alliance of public broadcasting bodies; Israel joined the organization in 1957.[6]

Israel’s place in the 2018 competition briefly appeared uncertain amid a planned reorganization of the public broadcaster. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to shelve the plan, but the reorganization went ahead and Israel was allowed to remain in the contest.[7] The episode demonstrated that participation depended not only on selecting a performer and song but also on maintaining a broadcasting organization that met EBU requirements.

Eurovision determines its winner by combining national-jury scores with audience televotes.[5] In 2018, each component accounted for half of the total score, allowing the audience vote to overturn the ranking established by the juries.[8] That mechanism proved decisive for Israel.

Netta Barzilai was selected to represent Israel after winning the February 13, 2018 final of the televised program HaKokhav HaBa L’Eurovizion (“Rising Star for Eurovision”). The result combined viewers’ and judges’ votes, and Barzilai defeated finalists Yehonatan Margi, Riki Ben Ari and Chen Aharoni.[9] She had won the program’s fifth season after competing against 19 other contestants and said she hoped to win for Israel during the country’s 70th-anniversary year.[10]

A special committee comprising Yoav Tzafir, Tamira Yardeni and three representatives of public broadcaster Kan selected “Toy,” written by Doron Medalie and Stav Beger.[11] Yardeni said the committee listened to songs without knowing their authors and chose “Toy” because it stood out. Barzilai initially had difficulty accepting the song, which was then revised with her input; its distinctive vocal clucks were her idea.[11]

“Toy” was released on March 11, 2018, with an official video directed by Keren Hochma. Avshalom Ariel served as Barzilai’s producer and encouraged her to pursue Eurovision.[3]

Barzilai’s musical approach relied on vocal sounds and electronic looping. A looper records and repeats sounds, enabling a performer to layer multiple parts; the Center for Israel Education says she had mastered the instrument before entering the Rimon School of Music.[3] Barzilai initially expected to use it at Eurovision because it recorded her live rather than playing prerecorded material.[12] Israel Hayom later reported that she was not permitted to use it in the contest and that backing vocalists produced a similar effect.[2]

The lyrics are primarily in English and include the Hebrew phrase “ani lo buba,” translated as “I am not a doll,” and the slang word “stefa,” meaning a pile of banknotes.[3] The refrain rejects being treated as a toy, while another line invokes Wonder Woman. Medalie summarized the central message as “I’m not your toy—you can’t play with me” and connected it to female empowerment and the #MeToo movement.[12]

Barzilai presented the message more broadly as one of self-acceptance and resistance to expectations about how a pop performer should look. Educational material about her career connects the song to positive body image and to her experience of being bullied over her weight.[3] Before the contest, she acknowledged that representing Israel had a political dimension but said she preferred to concentrate on music, which she described as bringing “love and good energy and healing.”[12]

The Eurovision final took place in Lisbon on May 12, 2018.[1] Barzilai had qualified from the first semifinal on May 8 and performed “Toy” as the 22nd of 26 entries in the final.[13]

Barzilai appeared with three dancers in Japanese-inspired staging that included kimono-like costumes and a wall of maneki-neko cat figures.[11] Her performance incorporated clucking vocalizations, animated facial expressions and chicken-dance movements. Her broader style mixed animal sounds and beatboxing, while a Jewish Review of Books commentary described “Toy” as combining K-pop, Middle Eastern sounds, chicken noises and elements of Mizrahi music.[1][6]

Israel finished with 529 points, ahead of Cyprus with 436 and Austria with 342.[3] Barzilai received 212 points from professional juries and 317 from televoters. She stood third after the jury voting but moved into first when the audience scores were added.[8] The audiences of Spain, Moldova, Ukraine, Australia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, France and San Marino each awarded Israel the maximum 12 points. Five national juries—San Marino, Austria, Czechia, France and Finland—did the same.[8]

Israel and Cyprus were both regarded as leading contenders, with Cyprus’s Eleni Foureira emerging as Barzilai’s principal rival.[13][2] Before the final, the official video for “Toy” had accumulated more than 25 million views on Eurovision’s YouTube channel.[13][2] Barzilai performed the song again after the result was announced.[3]

After winning, Barzilai thanked viewers for “choosing difference,” “accepting differences between us” and “celebrating diversity.” She concluded, “I love my country. Next time in Jerusalem.”[3] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated her by telephone and called her “the best ambassador for Israel.”[13] Barzilai said she hoped international audiences would see “the Israeli carnival” when the country hosted the next contest.[2]

The result arrived at about 1:30 a.m. Israeli local time, prompting celebrations in several cities. Crowds gathered at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, City Hall displayed the word “Toy,” and celebrations also began at Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market.[3] Globes described thousands singing and dancing at Rabin Square at about 3 a.m. It reported a 35 percent television rating for the final, rising to 47.9 percent of households during Barzilai’s performance, with about two million viewers across Kan’s platforms.[11]

The victory also brought professional and international consequences. Barzilai secured an international distribution agreement with S-Curve Records, while Israel gained the opportunity to host the next contest.[1][11] A 2019 analysis reported that more than 180 million people watched the 2018 competition and that its audience in 42 televised markets was roughly four times the broadcasters’ average ratings among viewers aged 4–15 and 15–24.[14]

Accounts of the victory differ mainly in emphasis rather than in their descriptions of the result. News and educational sources focus on the performance, voting and public celebrations.[1][3] The Jewish Review of Books interprets Eurovision participation as a form of national normalization, while the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs treats the following contest as an opportunity for cultural diplomacy.[6][14] A BESA Center paper instead frames the rejection of Jerusalem as host city as a victory for the BDS movement.[4]

Sources published at different stages also describe the 2019 host city differently. An early timeline declared that Jerusalem would host, reflecting expectations after Barzilai’s victory, whereas a later retrospective records the eventual selection of Tel Aviv.[1][3]

Israel’s victory meant it would host Eurovision in 2019, and Jerusalem was initially discussed as a likely location. Barzilai’s “Next time in Jerusalem” remark reflected that expectation, as did contemporary statements by Israeli officials and an early Center for Israel Education timeline.[1][3][2]

The host-city question became politically contested. The EBU ultimately selected Tel Aviv, citing its “creative and compelling bid.” Its executive supervisor said: “All the bids were exemplary, but in the end, we decided that Tel Aviv provides the best overall setup for the world’s largest live music event.”[4] The BESA Center paper also notes that a Jerusalem contest would have overlapped several holy days and discusses the city’s disputed international status as part of the surrounding diplomatic context.[4]

Sources describe the rationale differently. The Jewish Virtual Library attributes the Tel Aviv location to political objections to holding the contest in Jerusalem, while the BESA paper records the EBU’s stated assessment of the competing bids.[5][4] The early prediction that Jerusalem would host and the later record of Tel Aviv’s selection concern different stages of the process rather than two simultaneous arrangements.[1][3]

The BESA author disputed the choice, characterizing it as a loss for Israel and a victory for the BDS movement.[4] That was the author’s political interpretation, not the EBU’s stated explanation. The decision nevertheless placed Eurovision within a wider debate over Jerusalem, cultural diplomacy and the international meaning of hosting a major event.

The victory was closely associated with difference, diversity and empowerment. Barzilai’s remarks emphasized acceptance, while educational material about her career presents the song as challenging assumptions about body image and who can become a pop star.[3]

Eurovision also provided Israel with a highly visible cultural platform. A Jewish Review of Books commentary interprets participation and hosting as ways for Israel to assert membership in the community of nations and to appear internationally for reasons beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[6] The same commentary notes that Barzilai’s ancestry included Polish, Libyan and Moroccan forebears and reports enthusiastic comments from Iraq and Egypt after Israel’s Foreign Ministry shared a video of her singing “Toy” on its Arabic-language Facebook page.[6]

A Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs analysis similarly characterized the victory as an opportunity to strengthen Israel’s cultural image through the following year’s contest in Tel Aviv. It advocated involvement by civil-society groups and local cultural initiatives while rejecting criticism that hosting was intended to redirect attention from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[14] These were the author’s cultural-diplomacy arguments rather than neutral findings about the contest’s effects.

Barzilai’s own approach was less overtly political. Before the contest, she acknowledged that representing Israel had a political aspect but said she preferred to focus on music.[12] The contrast between that preference and the debate over the host city illustrates how Eurovision acquired political meaning even when its winning performer emphasized artistic expression.

Some social-media users alleged that the performance appropriated East Asian culture or amounted to “yellowface,” while others criticized Israeli policies and protesters in Lisbon carried pro-Palestinian banners.[15] These were reported criticisms rather than settled descriptions of the performance. The same report described controversy over a document that reportedly instructed Eurovision hosts to say “Israel,” without naming Jerusalem, when presenting the Israeli jury’s votes; it did not independently establish the reason for the instruction.[15]

A separate dispute concerned a cartoon published by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. It depicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the Eurovision stage in attire associated with Barzilai, with a speech bubble reading “Next year in Jerusalem.” Germany’s federal commissioner for combating antisemitism, Felix Klein, condemned it, and the newspaper removed the cartoon and apologized after acknowledging that readers could understand it as antisemitic.[16] The cartoonist said he intended to refer to the expected 2019 contest, while European coordinator on combating antisemitism Katharina von Schnurbein asked, “Why should the artist stand proxy for the politics of her country?”[16]

In July 2018, Universal Music Group reportedly alleged that “Toy” plagiarized the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” and sent a pre-suit letter to Medalie and Beger. The initial report said a lawsuit could threaten Israel’s victory.[17] In February 2019, Calcalist reported that Jack White had been added to the composition credits and would receive royalties. Medalie said the parties were subject to a confidentiality agreement and could not provide further details.[18] The available accounts describe a credit and royalty arrangement, not a public adjudication of the allegation.

An INSS newsletter also noted that a Dutch state-funded television show spoofed “Toy,” prompting protests from critics who alleged that the parody used antisemitic clichés about Jews and money.[19] The newsletter presented these as the critics’ allegations.

“Toy” became Israel’s fourth Eurovision-winning entry, following victories in 1978, 1979 and 1998.[1][2] Barzilai’s win ended a 20-year interval and transferred hosting responsibility to Israel for the next edition.[3][2] It also brought international attention to an entry built around unusual vocal effects, electronic looping and an empowerment message.

The voting pattern—third place after the juries and first after televoting—made the public vote central to the story of the victory.[8] Barzilai’s statements about difference and diversity became closely associated with the result, while celebrations in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem gave it a visible domestic dimension.[3]

The victory also initiated the 2019 host-city debate, linking a popular music competition to questions of national image, Jerusalem and cultural diplomacy.[4][14] The selection of Tel Aviv did not alter the 2018 result, but it shaped the political discussion surrounding Israel’s transition from winner to host.