Israel Song Festival (in Hebrew: Festival HaZemer VeHaPizmon, he, פסטיבל הזמר והפזמון, lit. Israel Song and Chorus Festival) was an annual

music competition A music competition is a public event designed to identify and award outstanding musical ensembles, soloists, composers, conductors and musicologists. Pop music competitions are music competitions which are held to find pop starlets. Exampl ...

organized by public broadcasters

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). In its final years the competition served as the

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 ...

i national preselection of the

Eurovision Song Contest 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 ...

History

The idea for the competition came from Kol Yisrael producer Israel Daliyot after seeing people celebrating

Domenico Modugno Domenico Modugno (; 9 January 1928 – 6 August 1994) was an Italian singer, actor and, later in life, a member of the Italian Parliament. He is known for his 1958 international hit song "Nel blu, dipinto di blu (song), Nel blu dipinto di blu", ...

's victory in the 1959

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annual ...

while on vacation in Rome. Daliyot approached the Israel Broadcasting Service, and with involvement of the Prime Minister's Office, the first festival was held as part of the 1960

Independence Day An independence day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or more rarely after the end of a military occupation. Man ...

celebrations. The festival became an annual fixture in the Independence Day celebration over the following years, although it was not held in 1962, 1962 and 1968, when it was replaced by other variety shows. In 1975 the festival was cancelled by the IBA director-general Itzhak Livni, as he considered the festival's songs to be of low quality, and was replaced by another singing festival that didn't air to television. At 1976, there was another replacement festival called "The singing celebration", which worked differently; there was no competition, and the participants performed 2 songs each, one that was already known and one brand new. After two years of absence the festival was reinstated, but not was held earlier in the year, during

Purim Purim (; , ; see Name below) is a Jewish holiday which commemorates the saving of the Jews, Jewish people from Haman, an official of the Achaemenid Empire who was planning to have all of Persia's Jewish subjects killed, as recounted in the Boo ...

. In 1978 the festival was designated as the national preselection of the Eurovision Song Contest, and until the festival was cancelled, in 1981, the competition was held between January and March. After the 1980 Festival the competition was cancelled and was replaced by

Kdam Eurovision The Kdam Eurovision (Hebrew: קדם אירוויזיון, transliteration "Kdam-Erovizyon", translation "Pre-Eurovision") in short known as the Kdam (Hebrew: קדם, lit. "Pre") was the Israeli national preselection of the Eurovision Song Contest. ...

as the national preselection of the Eurovision. Attempts were made to reinstate the competition, first in 1987, as part of the

Arad Hebrew Music Festival Arad or ARAD may refer to: People * Arad (given name) * Arad (surname) Places and jurisdictions Bahrain * Arad, Bahrain, a village in Al Muharraq Governorate * Arad Fort, located on Arad shore * Arad Island, a former member of the Bahrain Islan ...

, and three times more in 2000–2001, 2005–2006 and 2013.פסטיבל הזמר והפזמון חוזר
Noa Hershkovitz, 15 January 2013, Walla!

Format

Between 1960 and 1966 each song was performed twice, once by a male singer and once by a female singer, in order to give emphasis on the song itself rather the performer. In 1967 the format was changed so each song was performed once. Following the main competition an intermission was held during which the viewing crowd submitted its vote for the winning song, while an interval act was performed. In 1969 votes from five ballots around Israel were added to the total of votes.

Winners

Presenters

References

External links