Yes you read it right! Israel’s Netta Barzilai has won the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest! The Contest was held on Saturday night in Lisbon and Netta regaled the audience with her unique style of performance with distinctive sounds and chicken-style dance moves! Her song “TOY” is inspired by the on-going #METOO campaign spreading the message of social justice and independence among women. Her song very aptly has the phrase “I am not your toy”.

Israel won the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest by a whopping 529 points with Netta being an all-time favorite contestant, not only among the Israelis but also among the foreigners. Audience worldwide enjoyed the live show with Portugal hosting the event for the very first time. This is the fourth time Israel has won at the Eurovision contest. The last Israeli winner at Eurovision was singer Dana International in the year 1998.

Netta was the winner of season five of Rising Star Israel. Every season the winner of the Rising Star Israel gets a chance to represent Israel in the Eurovision Contest. Rising Star is the most watched music show in Israel for the second year in a row outperforming X-Factor’s season average rating by 27%. You can watch her winning performance on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTjmX1JPoSA&feature=youtu.be

The show Rising Star India was introduced to the Indian audience in February 2017 and has already gained popularity with completion of two seasons! The program format lets viewers vote for contestants live via the television channel’s mobile app. This is the first reality television show in India involving live audience voting. Both the seasons have aired on COLORS TV.

Yogita Kale; Trade Officer, Mumbai

Email: yogita.kale@israeltrade.gov.il