It is his only way: Michael Ben-David's route to the Eurovision Song Contest is full of bumps

Less than a month before the Eurovision Song Contest, everything that could have been complicated was indeed complicated when it came to Israeli song.

Every change and every performance did not help: Israel's Eurovision song failed at the betting agencies.

As it stands now, Michael Ben-David's journey to Turin will be stopped on May 12, the semi-final date

Walla!

culture

19/04/2022

Tuesday, April 19, 2022, 00:00

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The moment when Michael Ben-David won the X Factor final of the Eurovision Song Contest (Photo: Network 13)

Putting Ukraine aside, it seems that no artist's path has been as difficult on the road to Eurovision 2022, as the path of Michael Ben-David who represented us in Turin.

Nothing worked smoothly for him, and everything that could have gotten complicated did get complicated.

It started already in the song selection format using "X Factor for Eurovision", which suffered a low season average and only 12.7% average, a final that did not reach 20%, grayness in every field compared to the glittering "Next Star" despite its shortcomings, and the problems do not seem to end.

At the beginning of February, when we argued over who should represent Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest - Eli Choli or Inbal Bibi, Israel shuffled in a not very good but not terrible place in the middle, in the areas of 23 to 29. On February 7, two days after Michael Ben David and the song IM, While most countries have not yet chosen or published their song, Israel has dropped to 32nd place.

Two weeks ahead, ahead of the last week of February, other media outlets have published behind-the-scenes drama of preparations for the Eurovision Song Contest - Michael Ben-David is threatening to retire.

At that time a personal manager had not yet been appointed for him, so a young and inexperienced artist had to deal with internal policies that are complex even for veteran battle foxes.

In those days of late February the betting agencies showed that if we thought it could not be worse, there definitely is, and Israel traveled between 32nd and 37th places, again - when not all the songs are known yet.

Why am I emphasizing this?

So that you understand that the gamblers thought that even countries that have not yet published the song will not be able to choose something with lower chances than Israel.

We'll jump about another three weeks to March 14, so there's a day we're all been waiting for - the revamp, what should be the song's upgrade, the version that will drop Europe's jaw, a performance that will make us scream "Oooo, we've been waiting for that! Reason to go to Turin! "

The "upgrade" failed to impress the listeners, not the amateurs, not the gamblers, and it is doubtful if it can be called an upgrade at all.

At this time we also discovered the source of the drama and the threats of retirement - the creators of the song were not involved in the new version, so much so that Chen Aharoni and Lidor Saadia did not attend the launch of the clip.

Before the song was published, Israel came in 33rd place in the betting agencies, and after that it went around in 34th-35th places.

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To the full article

We continue with our journey in time and this time arrive on April 7, the return of the "Israel Calling" show after a three-year hiatus.

Tali Eshkoli and her team put on a real mini-Eurovision production, including postcards, green rum, dancers, with the attack on Dizengoff Street ruining the celebration.

Michael Ben-David and his team decided not to participate in any pre-Eurovision event other than the event in Tel Aviv, and perhaps this also shows the lack of faith in the ability to reach the finals and therefore save on expenses from now on.

Why travel to Amsterdam, Barcelona, ​​London or Madrid for an adventure that currently seems to end on the night between Thursday and Friday, May 12th?

So Israel Calling was the only chance to see Michael Ben David perform live with IM, and the result is not encouraging at all.

The performance did not sound good, the giggles while Bambad sang I know I am were as embarrassing as Kobi Marimi's crying, and everything seemed stiff and not flowing. It is clear to everyone that the Eurovision number itself will be completely different, but in the betting agencies Israel the performance.

We said that Michael Ben - David's road to Turin is full of bumps, and these are not over yet.

On April 12, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation here dropped a bomb and announced: "Israel is not currently participating in the Eurovision Song Contest" due to security issues.

For those who do not know, Israel, as a perpetually threatened country, always travels to the Eurovision Song Contest with GSS security.

The next day we posted here on Walla!

A culture in which the GSS chief instructed security officials to find a solution without assistance from the Foreign Ministry, and we are still waiting for such a solution. The cliché says that there is no such thing as negative publicity, but Israel is ripe - 34-37th place in gambling.

At the time of writing, Israel is ranked 34th in the chances of winning, but until you read them, it may be elsewhere.

It will probably not be lower than 38 nor higher than 34, but the figure that interests us to take a look at now is the table of chances of advancing to the final.

Of the 18 participating countries, only 10 will emerge, and Israel is currently ranked 15th, with Georgia, northern Macedonia, and Ireland below it.

It is definitely embarrassing and something extraordinary has to happen for Michael Ben-David to bring us the seventh consecutive Eurovision final.

Recall that last year at this point Eden Elena was ranked 10-11 in the chances of advancing to the final, which she did reach in the end.

Rehearsals for Eurovision 2022 will open in the first week of May, so it remains to be seen if international director Marvin Dittman, who has been entrusted with directing the Israeli song, is also a magician.

We will, of course, be there.

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• Michael Ben David

• Eurovision 2022