Eurovision 2019 spotlight: Israel's Kobi Marimi with "Home"...

Well folks, I've gone through the entries in the first semi-finals of this year's Eurovision Song Contest (as well as one that should've been there), and you can catch up with my spotlight series so far by clicking here. Now before I go into the second semis, I'm going to feature three of the six songs that will automatically qualify. Five of the countries - France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy - do not have to go through the weeding because the amount of money they contribute towards the event, and hence for better or worse called "the Big Five". The sixth, which is what I'm covering today, is the hosting country's entry, since winning the event last year bought Israel the right of hosting the annual competition as well as getting a home-ground pass to the end. Now this isn't a guarantee of success for either the Big Five or the host, since 2017's winning country of Portugal came in dead last in the final in 2018 with the delicate but maybe too ethereal "O Jardim" by Cláudia Pascoal and Issaura. No, last year, fans needed a banger to take them away from the shitty year the world has been subjected to (ahem, Trump), and out of the top two in 2018, Israel's Netta took the crown with "Toy". So now that the contest is back in the country for the third time in Tel Aviv, does the country give us another club bop in the gay capital of the Middle East? Well, no.

Israel - "Home" from Kobi Marimi

Marimi, an actor and singer from the Tel Aviv suburb city of Ramat Gan, won the country's singing competition HaKokhav HaBa, which has produced the Eurovision artist for Israel since 2015. His entry song on the show was Beyonce's "Sweet Dreams", but done in a ballad style, where you can definitely recognize this guy's got major pipes. And he did a version of last year's Eurovision runner-up, "Fuego", that was stunning...

Really, this guys run on the show is so worth watching. Anyway, winning the Rising Star show, he gets the chance to sing in his homeland, but is given the song to perform. And to my surprise, the result is really really conventional. "Home", written by Ohad Shargai and Inbar Weitzman, is a showy power-ballad that does allow Kobi to insert a little bit of his vocal nuances to it, but really this isn't much, much different than songs from Moldova and Serbia in the contest already...

Wow. So yes, Kobi can outsing probably any other person in the competition. And the song's message of finding one's peace with oneself is nice, kind of like the male version of Tamara Todevska's "Proud" for North Macedonia this year. But the big question is how this will translate on stage. The studio version is greatly enhanced by multi-tracking Kobi's vocals, which won't be happening in Tel Aviv, and whether you can get backing singers as strong as he is without distracting from his voice will be difficult. Also, the song is really by the book, so younger fans (and maybe some of the juries even) may knock it for being dated. But honestly, "Home" is a very worthy entry that probably has grown on me since first listen more than most of the rest of the pack. And with being in the final automatically, why not take a chance with this stand-out that probably would've been the showstopper in the late 1980s. (Rating: 7.5/10)

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Israel has been taking part in Eurovision since 1973, and generally has done quite well the times they have reached the finals. The country has won four times, including back-to-back wins in 1978 and 1979. In '78, Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta took first with the novelty kids-game reboot "A-Ba-Ni-Bi". It was a historic win, but also a controversial one, with broadcasters in Arab nations (who weren't competing in the contest anyway) refusing to show them winning, even lying about the winner in one instance. (Turkey was the sole Arab nation to compete in the event.)...

The year after, Gali Atari and vocal group Milk & Honey won the contest with "Hallelujah". In doing that, Israel became the third country to win consecutive years (only one more, Ireland, has done it since). In fact, the country couldn't afford to put the show on for a second year, so it was held in the Netherlands instead...

Fast forward to 1998, where the country again made history, where transgender singer Dana International claimed victory with the dance-pop gem "Diva", whose success translated beyond the contest and charted all over Europe...

And of course, last year Netta edged out "Fuego" with her feminist bop "Toy", which ended up a #1 club hit in America as well...

As for my personal favorite, in a tough race I'd go with Harel Skaat who took 14th in 2010 with "Milim" ("Words")...

As far the wackiest from the country, it's also a close one. In 2007, the group Teapacks brought Eurovision the anti-war "Push The Button", bringing a visual probably any novice would think the contest is about...

But in 2000 the country's entry, Ping Pong, were as far as I know the only act disavowed by their country by the time they performed when their amateurish dance-pop of "Sameach" ("Happy") had the group wave Israeli and Syrian flags, as well as a music video sporting same-sex kissing. My problem was that they basically plagiarized Gina G's "Ooh Ahh Just A Little Bit"...