Eurovision 2020 | Eden Alene will represent Israel in Rotterdam

Eden Alene has been crowned the winner of HaKokhav HaBa L’Eurovizion (The Next Star For Eurovision), and will fly the flag for Israel at Eurovision 2020. 19 year old Eden, born in Kiryat Gat, is an Ethiopian-Israeli singer who rose to fame after winning X Factor Israel in 2018.

The final of HaKokhav HaBa L’Eurovizion was comprised of two rounds. Round one saw the four finalists competing against each other in two duels. Eden Alene and Orr Amrami-Brockman were first up, and after both of them receiving votes from all but one of the judges, it was the viewers turn to vote, which saw Orr Amrami-Brockman win with 73%, whilst Eden received 66%.

The second duel was Gaya Shaki versus Ella Lee Lahav. All of the judges gave their top marks to Gaya, with Ella only garnering points from all but two of the judges. However, despite winning the jury vote, Gaya lost out to Ella in the public vote, which saw Ella win the second duel with 75%, whilst Gaya only managed 61%. After round one, Eden was put through to the final as the wildcard act, chosen by the public.

Round two saw the three finalists perform again. Orr Amrami-Brockman was up first with “Ha’im Lihiyot Bakh Me’ohav”, followed by Ella Lee Lahav singing "Roar" by Katy Perry. Eden was last to perform with Beyonce's "Halo". The winner was decided by a mix of public vote and jury vote, which saw Eden winning the show with 260 points, Ella in second place with 182 points and Orr completing the top 3 with 158 points.

The song that Eden will sing at Eurovision will be chosen in a special show called HaShir HaBa L’Eurovizion on March 3rd. During the show, Eden will perform a few songs, with a mixture of jury vote (65%), judging panel vote (5%) and televote (30%) deciding the winning song for Rotterdam 2020.

Whilst we await Israel's song for Eurovision 2020, let's take a look back at Andy's interview with Israel's 2019 singer on home soil, Kobi Marimi: