Israel was represented at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 which took place on 25 November 2018, in Minsk, Belarus. The Israeli broadcaster Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) was responsible for organising their entry for the contest. This is Israel's third appearance at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
Background
Prior to the 2018 contest, Israel had participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest twice since its debut in , represented by the group Kids.il, who performed the song "Let the Music Win", which finished in eighth place achieving a score of sixty-eight points. They briefly returned in 2016 with Shir & Tim singing "Follow My Heart" before withdrawing again in 2017. Israel has previously shown interest to take part in the and contests, although no reasons were ever published to detail the change of interest.
The EBU published the final list of participating countries on 2 August 2018, in which Israel appeared within the participating list for the contest which takes place on 25 November 2018, in Minsk, Belarus.
Before Junior Eurovision
Kdam Eurovision Junior The singer who performed the Israeli entry for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 was selected through the singing competition Kdam Eurovision Junior ("Pre Junior Eurovision").
The Israeli broadcaster opened a call for performers for their 2018 Junior Eurovision national selection in August 2018. The candidates took part in live auditions, held in the last week of August, where an expert committee selected the 6 participants that participated at the national final to perform cover songs. The show took place on 6 September 2018 at the Russel Theatre in Ramat Gan, hosted by Yaron Rubinsky and Roni Dalumi, but was broadcast on 2 October 2018 on Kan 11 and Kan Educational. After all of the covers were performed by the competing artists, the contestants sang the four Israeli winning songs of the Eurovision Song Contest: "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" (1978), "Hallelujah" (1979), "Diva" (1998) and "Toy" (2018). Noam Dadon was selected by a jury panel consisting of former Eurovision representatives Yardena Arazi (1976 and 1988), Lior Narkis (2003), and singer Hanan Ben Ari, with the split results of the competition never being published. DrawArtistSong 1Lian Biran"La Vita è Bella" 2Adar Kagan"Od me'at" 3Michaela Sher"Vienna" 4Romi Netz"Na'im achshav" 5Roni Meduel"Arms" 6Noam Dadon"Me'kha'ke"
Song selection After Dadon's win, KAN launched an open call for the song, and members of the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers in Israel could submit their entries until 12 September. On 7 October, a 35-second snippet of the song "Children Like These (Yelaad’im Kaeele)" was published, containing the chorus. The official music video and the full song were published a day later on the official YouTube channel of Kan Educational. The entry was entirely in Hebrew. The song was written and composed by Eden Hason.
At Junior Eurovision
During the opening ceremony and the running order draw which both took place on 19 November 2018, Israel was drawn to perform fourteenth on 25 November 2018, following Georgia and preceding France.
Voting
+ Points awarded to Israel Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point Israel received 47 points from the online vote
+ Points awarded by Israel Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Detailed voting results The following members comprised the Israeli jury:
Aya Korem Avi Greinik Eviatar Leket Imri Zivrepresented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 Michaela Sher
+ Draw Country Juror A Juror B Juror C Juror D Juror E Rank Points 01 2 3 3 3 5 3 8 02 17 18 19 16 17 18 03 14 11 18 8 12 13 04 15 13 17 11 16 15 05 6 8 6 5 8 6 5 06 8 9 5 9 6 8 3 07 9 12 13 10 13 11 08 16 14 15 18 15 16 09 18 17 14 17 18 17 10 19 19 12 19 19 19 11 5 2 2 4 4 4 7 12 11 5 7 6 10 9 2 13 1 6 1 2 1 1 12 14 15 13 7 9 7 11 10 1 16 10 15 10 15 9 12 17 7 4 8 12 7 7 4 18 12 16 16 13 14 14 19 4 1 4 1 2 2 10 20 3 10 11 14 3 5 6
References