Relive the dream

Catch Tel Aviv’s Eurovision again on Netflix

Although once few Americans had even heard of Eurovision, in this increasingly globalized world, the song contest has picked up fans all over and there is no more telling sign of its universal popularity than the fact that Netflix, the streaming service, bought US VOD rights to show the 2019 competition and to broadcast the 2020 contest.

The 2019 contest became available on US Netflix VOD on Monday. Viewers can watch two semi-finals and the finals.

This year’s Eurovision took place in May in Tel Aviv, since it is held in the country of the previous year’s winner, and Netta Barzilai won in 2018 with her song, “Toy.” The 2020 competition will take place in the Netherlands, the home of Duncan Laurence, who won this year with the song “Arcade.”

Netflix has also announced it is producing a movie set at Eurovision, a comedy starring and co-written by Will Ferrell, which will co-star Rachel McAdams.

Eurovision is the world’s largest non-sporting live television event and the most watched live entertainment TV program in Europe, with about 200 million viewers worldwide each year. It was started in 1956 to bring countries together for peaceful competition and entertainment. Viewers vote for their favorites, but must vote for songs from other countries, not their own.

The contest is especially popular here because it was one of the first major non-sporting competitions in which Israel could compete, and also since Israel has done so well in it. It began competing in 1973, with a more than-respectable fourth-place finish for Ilanit. Israel then won in 1978, with “A-BaNi-Bi” by Izhar Cohen and Alphabeta, and in 1979 with “Hallelujah” by Milk and Honey. Arab countries blacked out the Israeli singers and Jordan even announced in 1978 that the winner was Belgium, the country that came in second. In spite of this, Israel continued to do well in the contest, with second-place finishes for Avi Toledano and Ofra Haza in 1982 and 1983.

Israel’s third Eurovision win came in 1998 with the song “Diva” by Dana International, an outspoken transsexual at a time when gender identity was rarely discussed in Israel. The next 20 years were lean times for Israelis at Eurovision until Barzilai had her breakthrough last year in Lisbon.

(Corinna Kern/Reuters) WITH EUROVISION broadcast rights acquired by Netflix, the annual song festival has become a global event. Seen here, crowd members take pictures with their mobile phones during a performance at the Eurovision semi-final allocation draw at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in January.