NETTA BARZILAI
Eurovision’s reigning champ takes us on a tour of Tel Avi
Eurovision champ Netta Barzilai still has a while before having to relinquish her title. But praise for the singer’s unique sound and call for self- acceptance has been offset by criticism of Israel. However, she agreed to give Martijn Tulp a tour of Tel Aviv, the city she calls home — and the new venue for this year’s contest
It’s a Wednesday morning and Netta, her team and I are in a van driving around Tel Aviv. I hand her a bag of cookies I brought from home, which she seems to enjoy. “I used to live in Hod HaSharon, which is about a
90- minute bus ride from Tel Aviv,” she says. “But I just had to move here because I don’t want to constantly drive a car back and forth. A lot of people here drive like crazy, it’s just not for me.
“I actually never got my licence,” she adds. First stop: Jaffa’s flea market, aka Shuk Hapishpishim. “I visited this market a lot when I was a teenager, looking for vintage stuff. I went through piles and piles of clothes to find treasures.
“The market also has a lot of homeless people selling stuff, sometimes without knowing how valuable it is. If you look hard enough, you can find some cool things. Two of my favourite dresses are from Shuk Hapishpishim, and they cost me about two shekels [ 42p] each.”
As soon as we get out of the van, people at the market recognise her. We try to walk casually on to the flea market to take some pictures but none of us make it past the first stall.
Netta, 26, is bombarded with enthusiastic people shouting to her. Some mothers try to get their toddlers to scream out her name in the hope of getting her attention.
They all want a picture or to say hello to the woman who brought a renewed sense of pride to the country, when she won last year’s Eurovision Song Contest with Toy — the 529 points garnered put her way out in front.
Netta’s stylist films the whole thing on his phone, while her manager apologises. “It’s hard to go outside in Tel Aviv with her,” he explains, and we decide to head back to the van early and drive to the next location in this city whose name roughly translates as ancient hill of spring.
Netta looks happy with the recognition but also seems sad. “It’s still one of my favourite places to visit, when I get some free time in Tel Aviv. But I guess for the time being I shouldn’t go here by myself,” she admits.
Time for a lunch break. We sit down at Farouk Bashuk, a trendy yet casual place that serves vegan, vegetarian and meat dishes.
“You have to try the bourekas!” Netta suggests. It’s a delicious puff- pastry snack filled with goat’s cheese and topped with a poached egg and tomato salsa.
It not only tastes great, but also looks very Instagrammable. “Social media is so powerful! When I visited the States, James Charles got in touch with me. He’s the first male ambassador for [ cosmetics brand] CoverGirl and he has almost 15 million followers on Instagram. That’s insane!
“He just purchased a looper and asked me for tips on how to use it. I offered to come to
his place and show him, next time I was in
LA. We did a session, he tagged me in an Insta story, and within 24 hours I’d gained 30,000 followers. It’s crazy.”
She takes a bite of her boureka. “This is where I took my boyfriend for breakfast after we met. I’d just got back from LA and went to a club called Radio EPGB. I told my girlfriends: ‘ I want to meet a guy tonight, so don’t cockblock me’. Of course, a few people came up to me asking for a picture, including this guy who had just moved to Tel Aviv from LA. He asked me to dance. I could see the shock on his friends’ faces when we were dancing together.”
She shows me a picture of her getting kissed on the cheek by a handsome, bearded guy with a sparkle in his eye.
“We had great chemistry, so at the end of the night I invited him to come to my place. As soon as he saw my rack of dresses he insisted upon trying them all on. He did a fashion show for me until 6am. And in the morning I took him to Farouk.”
Netta’s face glows when she talks about her boyfriend. “We’ve been together for six months. He’s my first serious boyfriend.
“He wears my clothes a lot, he’s very secure in his sexuality. And it actually looks supersexy on him.
“He’s an American Jew, and he made Aliyah.” Netta is referring to the process of moving to Israel to get citizenship, a right given to any Jew and their descendants.
“He’s really interested in photography but he’s not very good at it yet. I don’t have the heart to tell him!”
While walking back to the van, one of the neighbouring shop owners sees Netta and enthusiastically pitches a roll of trash bags on the street, as if he’s rolling out a red carpet for her. Netta sashays on it as if she’s about to attend a fancy movie premiere. The shop owner doesn’t ask for a picture, he’s just excited to see her.
Our next stop is to look at a piece of street art. It’s a portrait of Netta in her full Eurovision get- up, but made entirely of bottle caps. “This was put up two days after I won Eurovision,” she explains.
“There was a lot of hope that I would win, and my victory really inspired the people here. Generally, Israelis don’t have a lot of reasons to be happy — we get a lot of bad PR. But the people here are good. There’s a great vibe. We just live in a bad neighbourhood.
“If I had a solution for our problems, if I could help solve them by singing somewhere, just tell me where to go.
“Me winning Eurovision was a rare happy moment for my country.
“But not everything is political. I’m very unapologetic and happy, and I hopefully inspire others to be the same.
“There’s a school nearby, and the idea that kids see this piece of street art and perhaps see me as the hero, as the idol, instead of some super skinny model selling clothes on the
“It’s absurd that gays here don’t have the same rights as me"
cover of a magazine, makes me happy. I’m proud to be a different type of hero.
“When I was growing up, I would have loved to have had a role model who is admired for what she does, not for the way she looks. So when I see this piece of street art, I don’t see myself, I see what my Eurovision victory [ Israel’s fourth] represents for the country.”
Our next destination is the Suzanne Dellal Center for Dance and Theater, located in Neve Tzedek, one of Tel Aviv’s oldest districts. It’s home to the Batsheva Dance Company.
“I used to perform here with the dancers a lot. I would improvise music with my looper, and the dancers would improvise their movements.
“The performances were different every time. It was a great period in my life. A lot of the dancers are still my friends.”
The beach- front Charles Clore Park is our last stop on Netta’s tour. Situated along the city’s Mediterranean coast, the park holds significance for the singer. “When I was a kid my dad used to fish here. I’d sit next to him and just stare out at the ocean.
“I still come here when I want to relax, to clear my mind. I can just sit here for hours.”
She’s interrupted by a girl who looks as if she was doing just that, until she noticed the singer standing next to her. She tells
Netta how much she means to her and how surprised she is to see her in the flesh.
The park will be the site of the Eurovision village in May, and it’s where the annual
Tel Aviv Pride parade concludes and turns into a massive beach party. There’s a reason American Airlines named Tel Aviv the best gay city in the world, in 2012. “I performed there last year, right after I came back from Lisbon,” Netta says.
“We were so excited to perform for the gay community. I’m looking forward to performing at Tel Aviv Pride again this year.
“The gay community and I go hand in hand. I’ve surrounded myself with gay men since my early teens — even before they came out. They lift me up. You’ve met my team: all of them are gay. They’re my family and my best friends.”
Netta’s connection to the community goes beyond friendship and styling, though. “It’s very important for me to use my platform to raise awareness about gay rights,” she explains. “It’s absurd that gays here don’t have the same rights as I do. It’s crazy that I can start a family with whomever I want, and they can’t. We’re obligated to pay taxes, we all have to serve in the army, but the government doesn’t treat us equally. It’s good to see we’re making progress, that we’re moving forward, but it’s not fast enough.”
Netta muses about how not having equal rights potentially makes gay men feel inferior. “When you weaken someone, when you tell them they’re not worth as much as someone else, it takes time for them to bounce back and start believing in themselves again.
“I’ve been there too: for years and years I believed I wasn’t equal to others because of the way I look and who I am. To this day, when I walk into a clothing store, there is nothing in my size. According to the industry it’s not commercially viable. Why? Because bigger women are made to believe they’re not hot enough to pull off a fashionable look.
“I think a lot of gay men are scared to come out because they feel that they are inferior. We should use our power on social media to constantly bring this discussion out in the open, and make Pride parades even bigger.
“Yes, you see some families visiting Tel Aviv Pride but it’s not enough. Gay pride should be a national holiday, not just a party. We should always strive to get more people involved.” So what’s next for Netta?
“It has been a wonderful year for me. I’m actually kind of excited that it will be over. Winning Eurovision has brought me a lot of great things, of course. It has opened a lot of doors for me.
“I’m proud of what I did for Israel and happy about what it did for me. Of course I’ll perform at Eurovision in May — I’m hoping to sing a new song.
“If all goes well, I’ll release an EP in the next few months. I’m ready to keep showing the world that I’m not a one- hit- wonder.” This year’s Eurovision Song Contest airs on BBC1 on 18 May
“If you tell people they much, aren’t worth it takes them time to bounce back”