Israel | Only 20 Remain In Rising Star
This week gone, the next round of Rising Star was aired, last week the auditions came to a close and this week the surviving acts performed again for a spot in the live shows.
70 were brought forward from the audition round, but this round brought a massive cull and cut to the numbers, from the 70 only 20 would advance forward to the Rising Star live shows and remain in contention of being Israel's 2018 Eurovision act.
The 70 remaining contestant performed in front of the jury once more and this time the jury alone had to come to a decision on the 20 artists to advance, the 20 still in the running are as follows:
Neta Barzilai
Riki Ben Ari
Adva Omer
José Steinberg
Chen Aharoni
Shir Baruch
Eden Meiri
Hayemen
Sarit Hativa
Jackie Gaforov
Ofir Harush
The Choice
Gal Yaakobi
Axum
Shir Gadasi
Tal Mizrahi
Howie Danao
Ravit Batashvilli
Rinat Bar
Israel's participation in Lisbon was in serious doubt over the summer after broadcaster IBA ceased broadcasting and was shut down in 2017, with the Eurovision final being on of the last shows the broadcaster every showed, however after being picked up by IPBC, the EBU granted them permission to compete, despite the broadcaster not meeting full EBU membership reuirements at this current moment in time
