Today it was made public that Noa Kirel will represent Israel during the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in a yet to be announced country and unknown host city.
Internal selection
Noa Kirel was chosen internally by a committee that consisted out of 10 members that were chosen by the Iraeli National Broadcaster, IPBC, and by doing so Noa Kirel is the first Israeli Eurovision act to be chosen internally since the 2014 Eurovision season, and also the first that was chosen by the formation of Israeli broadcaster IPBC in 2017.
The selection process
First stage
The selection process was really an intricate one, since the members of the committee had to scan and decide on 78 names in Israeli music that have experience with singing for a grand live audience. The names that made it on the list were decided by most airplay in Israel and they were also selected on the standard of whether they were nominees for Singer of the Year or Group of the Year in the years 2019, 2020, and 2021. And that was only stage one of the selection process!
Second stage
In the second stage, each member of the IPBC committee needed to select and discuss two of the names that made it onto the list of possible representatives. After that, the list was narrowed down in order of importance. The artist that made it to the top of the priority list was invited to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest of 2023. The conditions of the participation were determined by IPBC. Noa Kirel made it to the top of the list, was invited by IPBC to represent Israel, and excepted the invitation.
Israeli 2023 entry
At the moment it is not yet known whether Noa’s entry will be decided by the Israeli public or whether it will be chosen internally. If we have more news on the matter, we will update you.
About Noa Kirel
Noa Kirel was born on the 10th of April 2001 in the Israeli city of Ra’anana. In 2015 Noa released her debut single with the name “Medabrim”, and this single was followed by a bunch of other successful releases, including an English one with the name “Drum” back in 2019. Noa won the MTV Europe Music Award in the category Best Israeli Artist in 2017 at age 16. International audiences might also know Noa from her performance during the Miss Universe 2021 pageant in the Israeli city of Eilat.
Eurovision 2022
In the song contest of 2022 singer Michael Ben-David failed to make it to the Grand Final with his flamboyant song “I.M”, he came in 13th in the Second Semi-Final. It was the first time Israel was not represented in the Grand Final since the contest of 2014.