Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020

Israel's representative for Eurovision 2020 was chosen through HaKochav Haba ("The Next Star to Eurovision"), a reality-TV singing competition.[1] The February 4, 2020 final featured Alene, Orr Amrami-Brockman, Gaya Shaki, and Ella Lee Lahav.[2] In the final vote tally, Alene received 260 points; Ella-Lee Lahav placed second with 182, and Or Amrami Brockman third with 158.[2]

Alene's winning performance in the final was Beyoncé's "Halo," delivered in a white sequined jumpsuit beneath twinkling lights, with ten backup singers surrounding her. After the result was announced, she held a small Israeli flag and embraced her mother.[3] Described at the time as 19 years old, Alene became the first Israeli of Ethiopian descent selected to represent the country at the Eurovision Song Contest.[1][3]

Born and raised in Jerusalem, Alene had pursued music from the age of three, when she first attended a local conservatory.[3] From 2014 to 2016, she sang with the Jerusalem YMCA Youth Chorus, an ensemble that brought together Jewish and Arab teenagers.[3] The chorus's founder and director, Micah Hendler, described her as hardworking and said she possessed "the incredible gift of her voice."[3]

Alene won Israel's X-Factor reality-TV competition in 2018 at age 17, and at the time of her Eurovision selection she had recently moved to Kiryat Gat and was serving in the Israel Defense Forces.[3] Her mother, Zehava Varkanesh, supported her through years of singing and voice training while working as a housekeeper. Varkanesh called her daughter's selection a source of pride for the Ethiopian community in Israel: "Everyone is behind her, supporting her and loving her."[3]

The process for choosing Israel's Eurovision song was separate from the competition that selected Alene herself. Four candidate songs — "Savior in the Sound," "Roots," "Rakata," and "Feker Libi" — were shortlisted and introduced to the public on February 27, 2020.[4] Voters could participate through the Kan app, and a dedicated broadcast was held to reveal the winner.[4]

The final selection of "Feker Libi" was determined through a weighted vote: a professional committee contributed 50% of the outcome, advance public voting 10%, votes cast during the broadcast 30%, and judging booths the remaining 10%.[5] Alene described the song as dedicated to her partner and said it represented "the whole country and all its sides."[5]

"Feker Libi" was written by Doron Medalie and Idan Raichel and produced by Yinon Yahel.[6][4] It is a multilingual love song — its title combining the Amharic word feker ("beloved") with the Hebrew libi ("of my heart") — and was expected to bring Amharic into the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time.[7][8] The song incorporated traditional Middle Eastern musical influences alongside its multilingual lyrics.[7]

Even before the official cancellation, Israel's delegation had pulled back from preparations: the country decided not to attend the official participants' meeting in the Netherlands in early March, and Alene's planned participation in filming the contest's travel postcards was also canceled, amid concern about infection and Ministry of Health guidance against travel abroad.[9]

On March 18, 2020, the European Broadcasting Union announced that Eurovision 2020, planned for Rotterdam that May, was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.[10] A contemporary report described it as the first such cancellation in the contest's 65-year history.[10] Alternatives discussed before the decision included staging the event without spectators or postponing it until the summer.[10]

Alene learned of the cancellation during a live broadcast and said she was shocked and upset, and that she had wanted to win.[11] She had been following positive online reactions to her song and described the prospect of postponement as painful, explaining that "every song has its timing."[11] The cancellation meant that Alene's 2020 entry did not compete.[6][10]

In April 2020, a noncompetitive replacement broadcast, "Europe Shine a Light," was announced.[12] Israel was represented by Alene performing approximately 30 seconds of "Feker Libi," alongside short presentations of all the participating countries' intended entries.[12]

The rules that followed the cancellation permitted countries to retain their selected performers for the 2021 contest but did not allow them to reuse their 2020 songs.[9] As a result, "Feker Libi" could not represent Israel the following year. By January 2021, Alene was confirmed as Israel's representative for the 2021 contest, with three candidate songs prepared for public voting.[13] Israel's 2021 entry was "Set Me Free," rather than "La La Love" or "Ue La La."[14] In an interview after the cancellation, Alene described "Feker Libi" as a song she valued for its connection to Israel's immigrant population and its reference to refugees.[15]

Contemporary reports differed on the languages used in "Feker Libi." A March 2020 Ynetnews report described it as an amalgamation of Hebrew and Amharic performed mostly in English, while a later ynet report listed Hebrew, English, Arabic, and Amharic.[7][14] The discrepancy remains unresolved in the available reporting. The claim that the song would have introduced Amharic to the Eurovision stage for the first time was published before the cancellation; because the contest was canceled, that planned milestone did not occur on its stage.[8][10]