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| Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 1983 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eurovision Song Contest 1983 | ||||
| Participating broadcaster | Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) | |||
| Country |  Israel | |||
| Selection process | Kdam Eurovision 1983 | |||
| Selection date | 5 March 1983 | |||
| Competing entry | ||||
| Song | "Chai" | |||
| Artist | Ofra Haza | |||
| Songwriters | ||||
| Placement | ||||
| Final result | 2nd, 136 points | |||
| Participation chronology | ||||
| ||||
Israel was represented at theEurovision Song Contest 1983 with the song "Chai", composed byAvi Toledano, with lyrics byEhud Manor, and performed byOfra Haza. The Israeli participating broadcaster, theIsrael Broadcasting Authority (IBA), selected its entry for the contest throughKdam Eurovision 1983.
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TheIsrael Broadcasting Authority (IBA) held the national final on 5 March 1983 at theJerusalem Theatre, co-hosted byDaniel Pe'er (who also co-hostedEurovision 1979 inJerusalem) and Dalia Mazor. One of the competitors was Pe'er's 1979 co-hostYardena Arazi, who also competed as a member ofChocolate, Menta, Mastik in the1976 contest. Arazi finished second, as she had in the previous year's national selection, and would later claim that the votes were incorrectly tallied and she, not Haza, had actually earned the ticket to Munich. However, she did not want to appear to be a sore loser, and let Haza take the victory.[citation needed] Arazi would later compete once againin 1985 in 1985 (as Israel sat the1984 contest out due to coinciding withYom HaZikaron), finishing third, and would eventually be internally selected by the IBA in1988, performing all the songs (including the eventual entry "Ben Adam"). The winner was chosen through several regional juries.
| Draw | Artist | Song | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kesem | "Ha'agada al Bel" | 56 | 3 |
| 2 | Gitit Shoval | "Beyti" | 5 | 10 |
| 3 | Ilana Avital | "Od va'od" | 37 | 5 |
| 4 | Osnat Vishinski | "Knafayim" | 5 | 10 |
| 5 | Isolir Band | "Kol mi" | 34 | 6 |
| 6 | Pnina Rosenblum | "Tamid isha" | 2 | 13 |
| 7 | Ofra Haza | "Chai" | 73 | 1 |
| 8 | Michal Tal | "Madu'a ze kashe" | 3 | 12 |
| 9 | Anat Rekem | "Ya lel ya lel" | 30 | 7 |
| 10 | Yaldey Ha'shemesh | "Holech ve shar" | 29 | 8 |
| 11 | Yardena Arazi | "Shiru shir Amen" | 72 | 2 |
| 12 | Riki Gal | "Panim" | 12 | 9 |
| 13 | Banana | "Madonna" | 48 | 4 |
| Draw | Song | Tel Aviv | Tiberias | Haifa | Yavne | Jerusalem | Degania Bet | Lod | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Ha'agada al Bel" | 10 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 56 |
| 2 | "Beyti" | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |||
| 3 | "Od va'od" | 5 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 37 |
| 4 | "Knafayim" | 3 | 2 | 5 | |||||
| 5 | "Kol mi" | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 34 |
| 6 | "Tamid isha" | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| 7 | "Chai" | 12 | 10 | 7 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 12 | 73 |
| 8 | "Madu'a ze kashe" | 2 | 1 | 3 | |||||
| 9 | "Ya lel ya lel" | 7 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 30 | |
| 10 | "Holech ve shar" | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 29 |
| 11 | "Shiru shir Amen" | 8 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 72 |
| 12 | "Panim" | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 12 | ||
| 13 | "Madonna" | 4 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 48 |
Both Ofra Haza and conductor Nansi Silviu Brandes remarked that competing in Munich held a special significance to the Israeli delegation. 1983 marked eleven years from theMunich massacre, which saw the murder of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes by the Palestinian militant organisationBlack September during the1972 Summer Olympics. Additionally, following a visit to theDachau concentration camp, Haza noted what significance there would be to an Israeli song winning in Germany, particularly one with a message of "all of Israel [being] alive".[citation needed] British commentatorTerry Wogan remarked prior to their performance that the song and Haza's vocals had been well-received in rehearsals, and that Israel was considered "a sleeper" to potentially win the contest.[citation needed]
Israel performed sixteenth on the night of the contest, followingDenmark and precedingPortugal. Unlike the previous year, in which Avi Toledano's "Hora" coming second was still a fair distance behind winner Germany, "Chai" was in contention through most of the voting, with two countries (Austria and theNetherlands) awarding Israel a maximum 12 points. Indeed, nine countries had Israel in their top three (including ten points from Belgium, host country Germany, eventual winner Luxembourg, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia; and eight points from France), all but two rated them five points or higher (Greece and Italy, who each awarded three points), and only two more (Cyprus and Turkey) failed to award Israel any points at all.[citation needed] Nevertheless, this proved to make all the difference, as by the end of the voting it left Israel with a total of 136 points, placing second, six points adrift of winning the contest.[1]
It was the second consecutive silver finish for Israel,[citation needed] and, as was the case the year before, the Israeli jury awarded twelve points to the winning song, in this case Luxembourg'sCorinne Hermes with "Si la vie est cadeau".[2]
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Ofra Haza went on to have a successful international career following her Eurovision participation. 1984 saw the release of her albumYemenite Songs, a collection of Yemeni Jewish songs and poems recalling Haza's heritage. It included her version ofRabbi Shalom Shabazi's poem "Im Nin'alu", which was remixed byIzhar Ashdot in 1987 and became a major hit in Europe the year after. Her international debut album,Shaday (1988), wound up selling over a million copies worldwide.[3]
Her 1992 albumKirya became the first Israeli album to be nominated for aGrammy,[4] and in 1994 she performed at theNobel Peace Prize Concert, an achievement she shares with a handful of fellow Eurovision contestants, includingSecret Garden,Jan Werner Danielsen,Alexander Rybak,Il Volo, andWenche Myhre. She provided the voice ofYocheved in 1998'sThe Prince of Egypt for eighteen different international versions. She died in 2000 of AIDS-related complications, but remains an influential and highly popular figure in Israel to this day.
As stated above, Israel withdrew from the 1984 contest due to it coinciding with Yom HaZikaron. "Chai" was therefore succeeded as the Israeli entry byIzhar Cohen's "Olé, Olé" in 1985.
