Netta Barzilai ( he, נטע ברזילי; born 22 January 1993), also known mononymously as Netta, is an Israeli singer. After winning the fifth season of ''

HaKokhav HaBa ''HaKokhav HaBa'' ( he, הַכּוֹכָב הַבָּא, translated as "The Next Star"; formerly ''HaKokhav HaBa LaErovizion'', ''Rising Star to the Eurovision'') is an Israeli interactive reality singing competition, which was first broadcast ...

'', she earned the right to represent her country at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2018 The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 was the 63rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Lisbon, Portugal, following the country's victory at the with the song " Amar pelos dois" by Salvador Sobral. Organised by the European Broa ...

. On 12 May 2018, she won the contest, held in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, Portugal, with her song "

Toy A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and pet ...

", marking

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 ...

's fourth win in the Eurovision Song Contest (after

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 ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

Early life

Barzilai was born in

Hod HaSharon Hod HaSharon ( he, הוֹד הַשָּׁרוֹן, lit. "Splendor of the Sharon, Israel, Sharon plain") is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel. The city is located approximately east of the Mediterranean coastline, s ...

. Her mother is from a

Maghrebi Jewish :''See Mashriqi Jews for more information about Jews in the rest of North Africa and Western Asia.'' Maghrebi Jews ( or , ''Maghrebim'') or North African Jews ( ''Yehudei Tzfon Africa'') are ethnic Jews who had traditionally lived in the Maghre ...

family (of Moroccan-Jewish and Libyan-Jewish descent), whereas her father is from an

Ashkenazi Jewish Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

family (of

Polish-Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...

descent). She has two brothers. As a child, Barzilai lived in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

for six years, where her father, who is an engineer, worked on a project for Israeli company

Solel Boneh Solel Boneh ( he, סולל בונה, lit. ''Paving and Building'') is the oldest, and one of the largest, construction and civil engineering companies in Israel. History During British rule (1921-1948) Solel Boneh was founded in 1921 in British ...

. Barzilai attended Hadarim High School in Hod HaSharon and was a youth leader in the HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed youth movement. Prior to her military service in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...

, she spent a

Service Year The Pre-Army Service Year ( he, שנת שירות, ''Shnat Sherut''), abbreviated Shin-Shin ( he, ש"ש), is a one-year voluntary service program for Israeli high school graduates prior to their service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Contrar ...

volunteering in the paramilitary

Nahal Nahal ( he, נח"ל) (acronym of ''Noar Halutzi Lohem'', lit. Fighting Pioneer Youth) is a program that combines military service with mostly social welfare and informal education projects such as youth movement activities, as well as training ...

. She completed her military service in the

Israeli Navy Band The Israeli Navy Band ( he, להקת חיל הים, r=Lehakat Heyl Hayam) was an ensemble of the Israeli Navy, and was one of many in the Israel Defense Force (IDF). History Early years The navy band first appeared in October 1948. The band consi ...

. Afterwards, she studied

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

at the

Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music Rimon School of Music is a contemporary music school in Ramat Hasharon, Israel. It is Israel's largest independent professional school for advanced study of jazz, R&B, bebop, rock, and pop music. Many of its graduates have become well-known music ...

, however she did not complete a degree there.

Career

Eurovision Song Contest

Netta (3) 20180508 EuroVisionary (cropped)

In September 2017, Barzilai auditioned for

season five A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pola ...

of ''

'', Israel's national selection for 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 ...

, with "

Rude Boy Rude boy, rudeboy, rudie, rudi, and rudy are slang terms that originated in 1960s Jamaican street culture, and that are still used today. In the late 1970s, there was a revival in England of the terms ''rude boy'' and ''rude girl'', among other ...

" by

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...

. After receiving 82% of the votes, she advanced to the second stage of the competition in which she sang " Hey Mama" by

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta ( , ; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and music producer. He has over 10 million album and 65 million single sales globally, with more than 10 billion streams. In 2011, 2020 and 2021, Guetta was voted the number one D ...

. In February 2018, she performed "

Wannabe "Wannabe" is the debut single by English girl group the Spice Girls. Written and composed by the group members in collaboration with Matt Rowe and Richard "Biff" Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produ ...

" by the

Spice Girls The Spice Girls are a British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and Vict ...

, and although she lost a duel to Ricky Ben Ari, she proceeded to the next stage after being selected by the judges. The last song Barzilai performed in the competition was a mashup of "

Gangnam Style "Gangnam Style" ( ko, 강남스타일, ) is a K-pop song by South Korean rapper Psy, released on July 15, 2012, by YG Entertainment as the lead single of his sixth studio album, ''Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1'' (''Ssai Yukgap Part 1''). The term ...

" by

Psy Park Jae-sang (, ; born December 31, 1977), known professionally as Psy (stylized in all caps as PSY) (; ; ), is a South Korean singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Psy is known domestically for his humorous videos and stage perf ...

and "

Tik Tok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

" by

Kesha Kesha Rose Sebert (; born March 1, 1987), formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. In 2005, at age 18, Kesha was signed to Kemosabe Records. Her first major success came in early 2009 after she was featured on America ...

. After receiving 210 points from the judges and audience, Barzilai won first place and the right to represent Israel at Eurovision. On 25 February 2018, it was reported that the song that Barzilai would perform at the contest would be called "

" and that it would be performed in English, apart from a phrase in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. The song was written and composed by

Doron Medalie Doron Medalie ( he, דורון מדלי; born 5 December 1977) is an Israeli songwriter, composer and artistic director. He co-wrote the song "Toy", which was performed by Netta Barzilai and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. Biography Doron M ...

and Stav Beger, and produced by Berger. The song was released on 11 March 2018, and its music video went on to receive more than 20 million views two months before the beginning of Eurovision. On 14 April 2018, Barzilai performed her song at ''Eurovision in Concert'' in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, the largest Eurovision promotional event. Four days later, she performed the song ''Hora Heachzut'' at the torch-lighting ceremony that opened the 70th

Israeli Independence Day Independence Day ( he, יום העצמאות ''Yom Ha'atzmaut'', lit. "Day of Independence") is the national day of Israel, commemorating the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948. The day is marked by official and unofficial ceremonies ...

. On 8 May 2018, Barzilai participated in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, winning the semi-final with 283 points and qualifying for the final on 12 May. In the final, she placed first with televoters and third with international juries, amassing 529 points in total and winning the competition, marking Israel's fourth Eurovision win (after

, and

). Shortly after winning Eurovision, Barzilai signed a worldwide record deal with New York-based label

S-Curve Records S-Curve Records was founded in 2000 by former Mercury Records executive Steve Greenberg. It is based in New York City. In 2001 the label established a distribution and licensing agreement with EMI Records. Among the hits released by S-Curve be ...

. On 1 February 2019, Barzilai released her follow-up single "

Bassa Sababa "Bassa Sababa" (Hebrew transliteration: באסה סבבה) is a song recorded by Israeli singer Netta, and is the follow-up from her Eurovision Song Contest 2018-winning single "Toy". The track was written and produced by Netta, Avshalom Ariel an ...

", alongside a music video filmed in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

with Eddie Kabtner. At the

Eurovision Song Contest 2019 The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was the 64th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, following the country's victory at the 2018 contest with the song " Toy" by Netta. Organised by the European Broad ...

held in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, Barzilai opened the first semi-final with a new version of her winning song "Toy". During the final she sang a new single, "

Nana Banana "Nana Banana" is a song performed by Israeli singer Netta. The song was released as a digital download on 10 May 2019 as the third single from her debut extended play '' Goody Bag''. The song was written by Nathan Goshen, Stav Beger and Netta Bar ...

Post-Eurovision projects

Barzilai began appearing around the world between Pride parades across Europe and TV programs in the United States. The record was set on 19 October 2019, when she appeared at the Zhejiang Satellite TV Autumn Festival in China in front of approximately 500 million television viewers and tens of thousands in the audience. At Hanukkah 2019, Barzilai began performing in the show "Pop Up Music 2" alongside

Omer Adam Omer Adam ( he, עומר אדם; born October 22, 1993) is an Israeli singer whose music fuses elements of eastern Mizrahi music (Oriental-Middle Eastern) and Western Pop instrumentation. In 2009, he participated in the seventh season of ''Kokha ...

Keren Peles Keren Peles Toor ( he, קרן פלס טור; born March 11, 1979) is an Israeli singer-songwriter, poet and pianist. Music career Peles graduated from the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music. In 2005, she became famous for her songwritin ...

Moshe Peretz Moshe Haim Peretz ( he, משה פרץ; born 10 May 1983) is an Israeli Mizrahi music pop singer-songwriter and composer. Beginning in 2013, Peretz acted as judge for the The X Factor Israel. Early life Peretz was born and raised in Tiberias, I ...

and more. In November, they released the theme song of the show "We Got The Power" together with Adam, Moshe Peretz and Rotem Cohen who participated alongside her in the show. She later released a duet with Adam, titled " Beg". On 7 February 2020 she released a new song, titled "

Ricki Lake Ricki Pamela Lake (born September 21, 1968) is an American television host and actress. She is known for her lead role as Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film ''Hairspray'', for which she received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Be ...

". In addition, Barzilai debuted a new project titled ''Netta's Office'', a series of YouTube videos in which she remixes songs using her trademark

looper Looper may refer to: Animals * Cabbage looper (''Trichoplusia ni''), a member of the moth family Noctuidae * Inchworm, of the insect order Lepidoptera, the moths and butterflies People * Looper (surname), a Dutch-language surname with the meanin ...

. In the same year she participated in the new version of the program "We Will Not Stop Singing" on Channel 12. Barzilai competed in the first episode alongside Keren Peles and Moshe Peretz and won the episode. On 16 May 2020, she performed a new song, "

Cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separ ...

", during the '' Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light'' special event. Her debut EP '' Goody Bag'' was released soon after on 25 June, containing all five singles she had released up until that point: "Toy", "Bassa Sababa", "Nana Banana", "Ricki Lake" and "Cuckoo". She later made a cameo in the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

film '' Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga''. A second EP titled ''The Best of Netta's Office, Vol. 1'' was released on 18 December, containing six of her remixes seen in the ''Netta's Office'' series. She served as a judge on the fourth season of ''

The X Factor Israel ''The X Factor Israel'' ( he, אקס פקטור ישראל) is the Israeli version of the British television music competition ''The X Factor'', created by Simon Cowell. The show started airing fall of 2013 on Reshet. Judges and hosts The first t ...

'', which determined the Israeli representative for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2022 The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was the 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Turin, Italy, following the country's victory at the with the song "" by Måneskin. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and h ...

. On 13 October 2021, Barzilai released "CEO" and "Dum", her first new solo music in over a year, and first since leaving her previous label Tedy Productions for a complete transition to S-Curve Records. Further singles in 2022 included "I Love My Nails" and "Playground Politica" (with Nigerian-born Ghana-based singer

Mr Eazi Oluwatosin Ajibade (born 19 July 1991), better known by his stage name Mr Eazi, is a Nigerian-born, Ghana-based singer. He is a pioneer of Banku music, a fusion of sound he describes as a mixture of Ghanaian highlife and Nigerian chord progressio ...

Discography

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Other charted songs

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barzilai, Netta 1993 births 21st-century Sephardi Jews 21st-century Israeli women singers Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2018 Eurovision Song Contest winners Israeli dance musicians Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Israel Israeli expatriates in Nigeria Israeli people of Libyan-Jewish descent Israeli people of Moroccan-Jewish descent Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent Israeli pop singers Living people People from Hod HaSharon Israeli military musicians Israeli Ashkenazi Jews Israeli Sephardi Jews Women in electronic music

Early life

Career

Eurovision Song Contest

Post-Eurovision projects

Discography

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Other charted songs

Filmography

See also

References

External links