Jewish Bubba: Noa Kirel, Israel's Eurovision Entry, Ready to Wow the Audience

Nadene Goldfoot

Noa Kirel (Hebrew: נועה קירל; born Noya Kirel, נויה קירל; 10 April 2001) is an Israeli singer-songwriter, actress, dancer, model, television host and a reality show judge. She has won the MTV Europe Music Awards for the best Israeli act between 2017 and 2022. She currently represents Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 with her song Unicorn, a 4 hour contest held today, May 13, 2023.

The grand final takes place at 20:00 BST on Saturday, broadcast live from Liverpool Arena on BBC One, and will last for four hours. It is the first Eurovision Song Contest to be held in the UK for 25 years. The competition is made up of two semi-finals and the grand final.

The winners of Tuesday's semi-final were Croatia, Czechia, Finland, Israel, Moldova, Norway, Portugal, Serbia, Switzerland and Sweden. Azerbaijan, Ireland, Latvia, Malta and The Netherlands failed to qualify. Israel is #23 in the order to perform out of the 26. More than 160 million people around the world are expected to watch the 2023 final. We in the USA will not be able to watch the live performance till its on youtube.

On Thursday, Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia got through to the final.

Noya Kirel was born and raised in Ra'anana, Israel, a beautiful city between Tel Aviv and Netanya, to Israeli-born parents. Right now Israel has been under the rain of rockets, over 900 of them, from the Iranian-led Islamic Jihad of Gaza that have already reached the outskirts of Jerusalem and northern Israel. If Noa is home, most likely she's been in a bomb shelter. One 70 year old man was killed so far, several in hospital. I'm sorry that I have to interject this, but this is the pressure that Israelis live under, and yet they will continue with their lives.

Her mother's family is of both Sephardi Jewish and Mizrahi Jewish (Moroccan-Jewish) descent, whereas her father's family is of Ashkenazi Jewish (Austrian-Jewish) descent. She is the youngest child of Ilana and Amir Kirel, and has two older brothers. Her father is the CEO of Glassco Glass, an imported-glass business headquartered at the Barkan industrial park. Her mother is the owner of a boutique fashion store. On her father's side, Kirel has relatives who were murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust.

Noa in 2016 at 15

Her parents named her Noya but after she was diagnosed with a severe kidney illness as a three months old baby, a rabbi suggested a name change to Noa ("Noa" can also spell "movement" in Hebrew). He also jokingly predicted that she might become a dancer. She has only one functioning kidney, because of a bacteria that caused her second kidney

not to develop.

In February 2020, Kirel was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and served in a unique military band of hers. She received an honorable discharge, completing her two-year mandatory service on 14 February 2022.

Kirel's competing song for her native Israel at the 2023 Eurovision, Unicorn, was released on 8 March 2023. Besides performing the song, Kirel also co-wrote and co-composed it. Singing in Semi-final 1, Kirel advanced to the Final. We might be able to catch some of her on YouTube.