HALLELUJAH! IT’S EUROVISION
THE FIRST time I watched Eurovision, I was five years old. My parents had gone out and we had a babysitter. They left the television on so they could record the show (Israel were favourites) and that decision changed my life.
It was 1985 and Israel’s entrant was Itzar Cohen, the man who delivered their first victory in 1978. However, Norway won with a duo called Bobbysocks and their song
La Det Swinge is still one of my all-time favourites (In 2008, I met Bobbysocks at an event in Sweden and despite my first words to them being “you women ruined my life”, they’ve been friends ever since).
Back in the 1980s, as a young Jewish child, getting the chance to cheer on Israel alongside countries I only knew from football tournaments was something special. This was a time before Facebook, when there weren’t many opportunities to jump on a plane and soak up the sun in Tel Aviv for a couple of weeks. I thought Israel was a special far-away land that we were supposed to defend on the news and pray for in shul, not somewhere we could cheer on through music.
I was a Hallelujah baby, born in 1979 just after Israel won Eurovision for the second year running. To this day, it still makes me proud that a show like Eurovision could create such a national sense of pride in a country like Israel.
But it’s not always easy being a fan of Israel (or the UK) at Eurovision. Results of late have been more than dismal but there have been some amazing highs as well as a few lows over the years.
In 1991, Israel looked set to win, leading until the very last jury. Seven or more points from them and our entire north-east London street would have erupted in joy. Instead, France got the 12 points and tied with Sweden for top spot while Israel finished third. I was crushed, my sister was in tears and, for once, my mother was rendered totally speechless.
A year later, at my barmitzvah, we had a Eurovision theme (the parents had very little say in that matter) with songs like Hallelujah, Chai, A-Ba-Ni-Bi and Kan (from 1991). Eurovision has found a place in Jewish culture, whether or not people want to admit it.
Israel has always been one of the most popular Eurovision nations. The competi- tion enjoys a huge gay following and that helped Dana International to victory in 1998. Because Katrina and the Waves had won for the UK the year before, tickets were in such crazy demand you had to apply through a ballot. I won a pair for the Friday rehearsal and despite having being in bed for six weeks with glandular fever, made it to Birmingham. The day after Dana International won, I headed straight to Golders Green. Israeli flags were out in force, cars were honking and people dancing on the streets. It was amazing! The first time I worked as a journalist at Eurovision was in 2005. It was in the Ukraine just six months after the Orange Revolution. Between phone calls to my mum to let her know I was safe — often standing next to a tank — I interviewed Shiri Maimon. She finished fourth for Israel. Luckily, I’d placed an each-way bet on her.
I’ve been at every contest since. In 2006, I worked closely with Team Sweden and their national music icon Carola, who had beaten Israel in 1991. We lost to Finland’s Lordi, the masked monsters that brought heavy metal to Eurovision. Even my grandmother voted for them!
The Eurovision Song Contest is the biggest music event on Earth and seems to get bigger each year. In 2015, it was watched by twice as many people as tuned into the Super Bowl and that was before China and the USA decided to get involved and broadcast it this year.
There are many clichés about music bringing people together, but being inside the Eurovision Bubble you get to live and breathe that Utopian dream. There really is no experience quite like it.