Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
participated in the
Eurovision Song Contest 2003
The Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the 48th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Riga, Latvia, following the country's victory at the with the song " I Wanna" by Marie N. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) a ...
with the song "Words for Love" written by Yoni Roeh and Yossi Gispan. The song was performed by Lior Narkis who was internally selected by the Israeli broadcaster
Israel Broadcasting Authority
The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA; ) was Israel's public broadcaster from 1948 to 2017.
History
The Israel Broadcasting Authority was an outgrowth of the radio station ''Kol Yisrael'', which made its first broadcast as an independent st ...
(IBA) to compete at the 2003 contest in
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...
, Latvia. The song Narkis would perform at Eurovision was selected through the national final ''Kdam Eurovision 2003'' that took place on 23 January 2003 and featured four songs. "Milim La'Ahava" emerged as the winning song after gaining the most points following the combination of a jury vote and a public televote. The song was later retitled as "Words for Love".
Israel competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 24 May 2003. Performing during the show in position 13, Israel placed nineteenth out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 17 points.
Background
Prior to the 2003 contest, Israel had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-five times since its first entry in 1973. Israel has won the contest on three occasions: in
1978
Events January
* January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
* January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...
with the song "
A-Ba-Ni-Bi
"A-Ba-Ni-Bi" ( he, label=Hebrew script, א-ב-ני-בי; bet-language language game for the word ''aní'', meaning "I" in Hebrew) was the winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978, performed for by Izhar Cohen and Alphabeta.
Descripti ...
" performed by
Izhar Cohen
Izhar Cohen ( he, יזהר כהן; born March 13, 1951) is an Israeli singer who won the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest.
Biography
Izhar Cohen was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and raised in Givatayim, to a family of singers of Yemenite-Jewish desc ...
and the
Alphabeta
Alphabeta were a group of Israeli singers who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1978 with Izhar Cohen.
The singers were Reuven Erez, Lisa Gold-Rubin, Nehama Shutan, Esther Tzuberi, and Itzhak Okev. The winning song was ''A-Ba-Ni-Bi''. Israel ...
, in
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
with the song "
Hallelujah
''Hallelujah'' ( ; he, ''haləlū-Yāh'', meaning "praise Yah") is an interjection used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, and four tim ...
" performed by
Milk and Honey and in
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
with the song "
Diva
Diva (; ) is the Latin word for a goddess. It has often been used to refer to a celebrated woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, theatre, cinema, fashion and popular music. If referring to an actress, the meaning of ''diva'' is clo ...
" performed by
Dana International
Sharon Cohen ( he, שרון כהן; born 2 February 1969), professionally known as Dana International ( he, דנה אינטרנשיונל), is an Israeli pop singer. She has released eight albums and three additional compilation albums. She w ...
. Their
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
entry "Light a Candle" performed by
Sarit Hadad
Sarit Hadad ( he, שרית חדד, ) (born on September 20, 1978) is an Israeli singer. In October 2009, the Israeli Music TV Channel (Channel 24) named Hadad "best female singer of the 2000s". She represented Israel at the Eurovision Song Contes ...
placed twelfth.
The Israeli national broadcaster,
Israel Broadcasting Authority
The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA; ) was Israel's public broadcaster from 1948 to 2017.
History
The Israel Broadcasting Authority was an outgrowth of the radio station ''Kol Yisrael'', which made its first broadcast as an independent st ...
(IBA) had been in charge of the nation's participation in the contest since its debut in
1973
Events January
* January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...
. IBA confirmed Israel's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 on 6 November 2002.
To select the Israeli entry for 2003, IBA conducted an internal selection to select the artist that would represent Israel and a national final to select the song for the artist.
Before Eurovision
Artist selection
![Liornarkiskesaria](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Liornarkiskesaria.jpg)
On 15 November 2002, IBA announced that
Lior Narkis
Lior Narkis ( he, ליאור נרקיס; born November 8, 1976 in Holon, Israel) is an Israeli singer.
Biography
Lior Narkis was born in Holon. His father, David Narkis, was of Iraqi-Jewish origin. His mother Hanna Narkis, was of Serbian-Jewis ...
was selected by a special committee as the Israeli representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003. Among artists that were highly considered before Narkis was ultimately selected included
David D'Or
David D'Or ( he, דוד ד'אור; born David Nehaisi on October 2, 1965) is an Israeli singer, composer, and songwriter. A countertenor with a vocal range of more than four octaves, he is a three-time winner of the Israeli "Singer of the Year" a ...
,
Eyal Golan
Eyal Golan ( he, אייל גולן; born Eyal Bitton; 12 April 1971) is an Israeli singer who sings in the Mizrahi music pop fusion genre, and considered one of the most successful singers in Israel. Golan reported the highest income of all sing ...
,
Zehava Ben
Zehava Ben (born Zehava Benisti; he, זהבה בן; November 8, 1968) is an Israeli singer. Ben is one of the most popular Israeli female vocalists in the Mizrahi music genre; the Middle Eastern-style of singing rising from Israel's Mizrahi Jewi ...
, Eyal Shahar,
Teapacks
Teapacks (also known as Tipex) ( he, טיפקס) is an Israeli band that formed in 1988 as HaHotzaa La'Poal (Hebrew: , ''The Execution'') in the southern Israeli city of Sderot. Originally the band was named after the correction fluid Tipp-Ex, ...
, and Yevgeny Shapovalov with Shlomit Aharon.
The members of the committee were Dalia Cohen-Simcha (member of the IBA Executive Committee), Nili Carmel-Yonathan (member of the IBA Executive Committee), Reuven Shalom (member of the IBA Executive Committee), Naomi Atias (producer at
Channel 1), Yitzhak Sonnenshein (Head of Israeli Eurovision delegation), Yaakov Mendel (Chairman of the Israeli Union of Performing Artists), Daniel Ben-Khalif (journalist),
Eran Hadas
Eran Hadas is an Israeli poet, software developer, new media artist and the author of seven books. Hadas also creates hypermedia poetry and develops software based poetry generators. Among his collaborative projects is a headset that generates poe ...
(journalist), Jojo Abutbul (journalist), Yoav Ginai (composer),
Margalit Tzan'ani
Margalit "Margol" Tzan'ani ( he, מרגלית "מרגול" צנעני; born December 19, 1948) is an Israeli singer and television personality. Tzan'ani is famous for her repertoire of Israeli oriental music style with soul influences, as well a ...
(singer), Shalva Berti (singer), Ezra Suleiman (CEO of the Israeli Mediterranean Music Association) and Roy Spiegel (youth movements representative).
Kdam Eurovision 2003
The song that Lior Narkis represented Israel with in Riga was selected through the national final ''Kdam Eurovision 2003''. Four songs were chosen from over 250 submissions by Narkis and announced on 2 January 2003. The national final, which simultaneously celebrated Israel's 30th Anniversary since their first participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, took place on 23 January 2003 at the Ha'Oman 17 nightclub in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, hosted by
Eden Harel
Eden Harel ( he, עדן הראל; born Adva Harel, February 10, 1976) is an Israeli actress. She was an MTV Europe VJ during the 1990s.
Biography
Early life
Harel was born in Eilat. Growing up, she went to the boarding school of WIZO Hadasi ...
and broadcast on
Channel 1. All four competing songs were performed by Lior Narkis and the winning song, "Milim La'Ahava", was selected by a combination of a public televote conducted through telephone and SMS (60%) and the votes from the committee members (40%). In addition to the performances of the competing songs, Narkis performed his song "Lekol Ehad Yesh" together with
Sigal Shachmon
Sigal Shachmon ( he, סיגל שחמון; born 13 June 1971 in Petah Tikva, Israel) is an Israeli model, actress and television presenter.
Life and career
Shachmon was born in Petah Tikva. Before she made her big breakthrough she was a dance ...
. The national final was watched by less than 212,000 viewers in Israel with a market share of 12.8%.
At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the bottom five countries in the
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
contest competed in the final on 24 May 2003.
On 29 November 2002, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Israel was set to perform in position 13, following the entry from
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
and before the entry from the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. Israel finished in seventeenth place with 19 points.
The show, which was televised live in Israel on
Channel 1, received a market share of 32% (with a peak of 40%) and was the most watched programme of 2003 in the country.
The Israeli spokesperson, who announced the Israeli votes during the show, was Michal Zo'aretz.
Voting
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Israel and awarded by Israel in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Spain in the contest.
References
{{Eurovision Song Contest 2003
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003
Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...