#dafna dekel

[eurovisionart]

🇮🇱 Dafna Dekel - Ze rak sport/זה רק ספורט

[wildatheart2003]

The Yemini Tetrad

[eurovision-revisited]

Jerusalem 1999

Oooooh, dusky! We've come to Jerusalem as the sun sets, Shabbat ends, and the festivities can begin!

Welcome to the International Conference Centre in Jerusalem, last host of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1979. First impressions are that it's still bright and vaguely purple - like Birmingham. There's a Toshiba sponsored scoreboard mounted on a poop deck, high above the main stage to the right - like Birmingham. There's a cheering crowd with flags and signs situated to the front of the audience - like Birmingham.

But what's this? Where's the orchestra? It's gone. No more conductors in humorous costumes doing their bow! All competitors must now supply a backing track and won't have live orchestral backing. Looking down the list of entrants, and another shock. Most of them are singing in English. Half the songs are in English with another two partly in English - the EBU have lifted the language rule again. Countries can sing in any language they like, and that language would appear to be English.

This year's voting, like last year's, is 100% televote where available. This time there are four countries unable to provide the technology, but everyone else is going to the phones and the public. There's also an intermission. Our hosts entertain us with a little song on stage while those countries that have broadcasters that wish to, can run ads in the middle of the contest. It's difficult to call this an innovation, but the push for broadcasters to reap some reward for devoting channel time and the resources to select and send an act every year, is increasing.

So many changes! One thing the EBU are sticking to however is their statistically complex relegation system. This year's victims are Finland, Greece, Switzerland, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania and Slovakia. That list is getting long... Returning are Austria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Denmark and Iceland with Lithuania are back for the first time since their debut in 1994.

After bravely plumping for the televoting revolution, the EBU are pressing the accelerator hard to the floor in 1999 and introducing a whole boatload of new changes to aim solidly for relevance in a music industry that had been moving on without Eurovision for years. Bye-bye ballads!

Another little change is that for the first time there are three presenters. Dafna Dekel (who sang Israel's 1992 entry), Sigal Shachmon (presenter, dancer and model) and a little out of place, Yigal Ravid (radio and television presenter, and current affairs report)

[everyeurovisionsong]

Israel 1992

'Ze Rak Sport' (It's just sport), performed by Dafna Dekel. Composer: Kobi Oshrat. Lyrics: Ehud Manor.

It's nowhere near Freddie and Montserrat, but Israel's tribute to the Barcelona at least captures the excitement of both the Olympic Games and the Eurovision stage.

'Sport' is a bouncy number, which does't profess to having any great depth, but it's comfortable with that. I'm less comfortable with the hints of latinmusic that they've tried to shoe-horn in. It's a trick that a lot of popular music tried in the nineties, but it rarely worked. Try to do it on top of a hebrew/disco number...

It's not perfect, but it could have been a lot worse. A nice slice of pop, forgettable but not painful.

Points: 85. Position 6th.