Today several Israeli media reported about a change of format in the Israeli preselection. Previously the radio station 88 FM was appointed by the IBA to select an artist internally – after shortlisting Marina Maximilian, Ester Rada and Asaf Avidan and approaching them, all three declined the offer. As a result of that, a new selection method was chosen.
The Israeli entrant will instead be chosen within the scope of HaKokhav HaBa (The Rising Star) – the winner of the casting show will have the privilege to repersent Israel in Vienna next year. The show is characterised by singers having to face real-time app voting. A jury is involved as well. As soon as a singer reaches 70% of the votes they move on to the next round. The originally Israeli casting format has been sold to many other countries such as France, Italy, the UK, Brazil and the United States.
The last time the IBA collaborated with an already existing TV show format was in 2008 when Boaz Mauda won Idol. With his song The Fire In Your Eyes he managed to achieve a respectable 9th place in the final.
Listen to Evyatar Korkus, the winner of the previous HaKokhav HaBa season here!
Are you happy about the new Israeli selection method? Let us know in the comments below or join the discussion on our forum!
Source: mako.co.il
