Nine reviews have now been published and therefore, we move onto the tenth one in accordance with the draw for the running order in order to give the readers a better analysis to how the songs styles will be heard about after each other. In the first semi-final one could easily note that there are not too many issues because most of the songs manage to stand up on their own and reach the best possible result. The next country, is Israel, a debatable nation on whether it is actually European such as Azerbaijan due to the ties with another continent. Nevertheless, they have presented great songs over the years and this time round they have chosen a very interesting track entitled Time written by Ran Shem-Tov & Shiri Hadar who are part of the performing group known as Izabo.

Izabo are best described as a brilliant, action packed combination of Psychadelic Rock, Disco, Punk flavoured with Arabic spices. They secured a spot as one of Israel’s most successful alternative pop bands with the 2003 release of their debut album The Fun Makers. From there Izabo went on to sign with Sony BMG, and in the same year released “The Morning Hero EP” in the UK and began to take their funky sounds to an international audience. In January of 2005 The Fun Makers was released in the Benelux countries via the label Rough Trade NL, and in 2006 it was released in France via Roymusic/ Discograph.

Since 2006, Izabo have been busy touring Europe constantly and showcasing their catchy disco beats at a variety of festivals including Trans Musicales, The Paleo Festival, and Eurosonic. Their second album Superlight was released in Israel and France in 2008 with Roymusic/ Discograph to rave reviews. In October 2011 Izabo signed with the English Label 100% Records, who signed artists among Gossip, Moby and Placebo. Izabo’s first three Track EP has been released in the United Kingdom this July, with their brand new album due to be released by the end of the year, in the UK, Europe & Israel.

The Critics Voice Their Opinion

Jan Van Dijck

• This song brings me back to the Motown Sound. The song itself has a melody line that reminds to one of ABBA’s less known songs “Nina, Pretty Ballarina” included in ABBA’s first album. But the song is catchy, funny and the band members of Izabo are enjoying. Will Europe enjoy it? I did and I give it seven (7) points.

Knut-Oyvind Hagen

• Israel goes in a rather crazy direction this year. But where other crazy efforts fail miserably, like Montenegro, this actually works in its own special way, because there is some musicality in it. And I believe that originality is something that should be credited, so five (5) points they shall receive, although I’m not crazy about the song!

Pitchtunes

• A rock/pop song with nice strings added to it. The chorus is the best part in there but the melody has a silly ”asian” feel to it. Not enough to make it a good song. We can only give this track three (3) points.

Entry Background

Performers: Izabo

Composers: Ran Shem-Tov & Shiri Hadar

Authors: Ran Shem-Tov & Shiri Hadar

Song: Time

Language: English

Broadcaster: IBA

History of the Nation

One can always learn new facts about a country when it comes to the Eurovision Song Contest. Israel is one of the nations who has never finished last in the event. Their first participation came in 1973 with the beautiful track Ey Sham performed by Ilanit which finished in fourth place making it a very respectable debut. This entry did cause some interesting talk because the conductor of the orchestra was a woman, the first ever at the music competition. They would continue to reach positive results year after year and in their first five years of competition, their worst placing was eleventh. Their first victory would come in 1978 with A-Ba-Ni-Bi performed by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta but they would reach the top placing once more the following year in 1979 with Hallelujah sung by Gali Atari & Milk and Honey. The results would continue to flourish and another victory would be recorded by Dana International and her track Diva in 1998. Since the qualification system was introduced Israel failed to make it through on three (3) occasions and made it through on another four (4) occasions. 

Source: Eurovision.tv for the Biographical Information and all respective media