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.

Results: Swedish singer Loreen wins Eurovision Song Contest 

for second time. LIVERPOOL, England — Swedish singer Loreen

 won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night with her

 power ballad “Tattoo,” at a colorful, eclectic music competition

 clouded for a second year running by the war in Ukraine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfo-8z86x80 Loreen

Noa came in 3rd.  Congratuations Noa.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4wbdKmM3bQ   this is 

Unicorn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT0J6mT45Do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdVx-GrnQzk

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noa_Kirel  

Malmo, Sweden and Anti-Semitism Goes Unheeded by Government-Eurovision Contest Marred

Nadene Goldfoot                                                             

   Jewish Yemenite Israeli singer, Ofra Haza, 1983 Eurovision Winner with "Chai"(Hi)

The Eurovision Song Contest is the best part of what comes out of Europe. 39 countries take part in this contest including Israel.     I enjoyed this time of the year so much when I lived in Israel from 1980 to the end of 1985.  The music was fantastic.  I was so proud in 1982 when Israel won 2nd place  with "Hora."   This year the contest was held in Malmo, Sweden, of all places, a place that has witnessed a lot of anti-Semitism.

Malmo has been a city where Holocaust survivors settled after WWII and is home to about 1,000 Jews.   The Scandinavian country had been one to treat people fairly.  My own maternal grandmother came from Lumsheden, a village in the north.  Lately, it has also been found to be a haven for Muslims who have turned on the Jewish survivors and their descendants for being Jewish. Today 30% of Malmo are Muslims.   Unlike the United States, the government has done nothing to stop this persecution. In 2010 and 2011 there were 480 complains of anti-Semitism but the court system didn't convict anyone of hate crimes.

 The outgoing mayor, llamr Reepalu is thought to be encouraging anti-Semitism because of the statements he has made in suggesting that Jews shouldn't be Zionistic and that only then will they stay safe.  In other words, he himself is against Israel's existence. A lawyer in Sweden accused him of being anti-Semitic, anti-Jew and anti-Israel and making the city stand for that.   Just last year, Muslims set off a bomb outside the city's Jewish Community Center and vandalized it.  The police wouldn't classify it as a hate crime.  No one has been found to have done this.  Born October 11, 1943, he said in February that he is stepping down from his position as mayor on July 1, 2013 when he will soon be celebrating his 70th birthday.  He was born in Nova, Estonia and his family had fled from the Soviets and went to Sweden.  Neither Estonia nor Russia have ever liked Jews.

On Wednesday, Daniel Sestrajcic, chairman of the Culture Committee, said Israel should be boycotted from the Eurovision and can only return when Palestine is free!  This was shouted at a demonstration commemorating the Palestinian "catastrophe," or Nakba- May 14, 1948 when Israel became a state through the UN.  It's as if many of Malma have turned into Palestinians who haven't a clue as to the facts as to why Israel was created at all or the history of the Arabs deemed as Palestinians.

It so happens that Israel took first place in both 1978 with "A-Ba-Ni-Bi",  and 1979 with "Hallelujah" (my favorite), and then came in 2nd in 1982 with "Hora" and 1983 with "Chai".  Israel came in 1st again in 1998 with "Diva."  France, Switzerland and Finland were high voters for Israel.  Israel was the host for the contest in 1979 and 1999.  In 2009 Noa and Mira Awed, Israeli Arabs were the contestants from Israel singing, "There Must Be Another Way".  They came in 16th.  .

Three Jews from the Israeli delegation to the Eurovision song contest were in Malmo and were accosted right on the street.  Alon Amir told the Swedish radio station that some young Muslim men accosted them.  The Muslims addressed them as Israelis and told them they wanted to bomb wherever they were staying, and they were quite serious about it.

Probably to the mayor's angst, the competition is scheduled to end Saturday and hundreds of Jews and non-Jews are planning to walk together through the street of Malmo while wearing kippahs as a sign of their opposition to anti-Semitism.  Good for them!  It's about time.

Resource: http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-eurovision-delegation-threatened-in-malmo/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilmar_Reepalu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hora_(song)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi_(Ofra_Haza_song)