The search for Israel’s representative continues unabated, as on last night, we had the screening of the twenty-second episode of HaKokhav Haba 2026, Israel’s selection process for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.  This is Israel’s established television show for selecting the artist who will represent the country in the contest. With the exception of 2022 and 2023, HaKokhav Haba has produced all of the country’s Eurovision representatives since 2015, with excellent results, including a victory in 2018 with Netta.

The Format

In the HaKokhav Haba format, participants perform a song with the aim of securing at least 70% of the vote. This score is derived from the combined votes of the audience (watching the show in the studio) and the judges, with each judge contributing up to 12% to the final score.

Presenters and Judging Panel

Rotem Sela and Assi Azar, one of the presenters of Eurovision in 2019, will remain as presenters of the show for another year. Azar has been a presenter since the first season of HaKokhav Haba in 2013, while Rotem Sela took over as host in the second season, a role she continues to this day. Following the departure of Ran Danker, the judging panel consists of:

Assaf Amdursky
Keren Peles
Shiri Maimon
Eden Hasson
Itay Levy

Their vast experience from different backgrounds guarantees a more competitive season, which will keep viewers’ interest unabated, even more so than last season. In tonight’s episode, the guest judges were Netta Barzilai, Israel’s representative and winner of the 2018 contest and Dana International, Israel’s representative and winner of the 1998 contest.

With Stav Vaknin‘s departure in the previous episode, the lineup now consists of: Agam Hazan, Elior Shemesh, Daniel Azar, Portrait Band, Gili Tsanaani, Alona Erez,  Shaked Solomon, Noam Bettan, Gal De Paz, Dorin Or, Tamir Levy, Eitan Aharon, Nave Levi, Michael HarPaz and Shira Zloof.

The show has now moved on to the next phase, “Duels.” In yesterday’s episode, eight contestants took to the stage, facing off against each other. According to the format, the judges will be asked to choose one participant from the ones that lost in their duels to leave the competition.

Contestants and Their Performances

Here are the eight contestants from yesterday’s episode, with one contestant leaving the competition:

Portrait Band: Portrait performed Hamsa’s “Ata Chayav Lamut Alay,” demonstrating their obvious stage experience with an energetic performance and garnering 77% of the vote, losing the duel.
Dorin Or: Facing Portrait was Dorin, who chose to sing Eleni Vitali’s “Nais Balamo.” Having the courage to sing in Greek, she gave a tremendously moving and emotional performance, garnering 81% of the vote, and as the winner of the duel, she automatically advances to the next round.
Eitan Aharon: Eitan sang Boaz Sharabi’s “Tni Li Yad.” He sang in an impressive way and with a dynamic, mature performance, garnering 87% of the votes, winning the duel and advancing to the next round.
Shaked Solomon: Shaked competed against Eitan, performing Margalit Tzanani’s song “Kol Kakh Mukar,” a risky choice as the style did not suit him particularly well, and with 67% he lost the duel.
Gili Tsanaani: Gili chose to sing Meghan Trainor’s “Me Too,” a beautiful performance that didn’t seem to suit her, as she couldn’t sing properly while dancing, and with 64% she lost the duel.
Gal De Paz: Gal faced Gili and performed Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” on a stage filled with candles, giving an amazing performance and winning the duel with 77% of the vote to advance to the next stage.
Daniel Azar: In the last duel, Daniel sang Eviatar Banai’s “Matanot” and with incredible vocal skills proved that he is one of the strongest and most distinctive performers in this year’s competition, but with 61% he lost the duel.
Shira Zloof: Opposite Daniel was Shira, who performed her own song “Ma’ariv LeNoar,” she moved everyone in the audience, clearly giving the best performance of the night. With her charisma, she garnered 83% of the vote and advances to the next round as the winner of the duel.

At the end of the evening, the judges had to choose between Portrait, Shaked, Gili και Daniel, the players who lost their duels, and ultimately  Gili Tsanaani is the one who bids farewell to the competition.

Last year’s winner of HaKokhav Haba and the country’s representative at Eurovision 2025 was Yuval Raphael, who performed “New Day Will Rise” on stage in Basel and finished in second place:

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the latest updates on the Israeli selection process!

Source: euromix.co.il