If you also started receiving text messages from political parties, instead of dubious messages about land for purchase in Hod Hasharon or excessive loans, there is no doubt that you live in Israel. What’s for sure – after all this noise, the primaries and the breaking news, it’s fun to end the day with ‘The Next Star’, and certainly when it comes to yesterday’s episode.
First was Josh Brennan, a friendly British guy who decided to immigrate straight from England, and declared himself to be a specialist in ordering shawarma with almost no mistakes in Hebrew. Quite surprisingly, he chose the song ‘After all the years’ by Omar Adam, but what? In English and in a translation that closely resembles the original. And it worked for him.
Right after him was 24-year-old Uri Shakib from Bat Yam, whose name I could have sworn I had heard before. It turns out that I was right, and Shakiv won third place in the first season of ‘X Factor’ 8 years ago. Did you manage to keep track of all these numbers? Those of us who have spent a lot of time watching musical reality shows will surely remember that in that final there was also Eden Ben Zaken, who in general feels that she has always been a part of Israeli music.
So Shakib brought his original song ‘Ola’ to the stage, which not only managed to deeply move the judges and the audience, but to raise the bar to 93 percent and with a lot of respect and modesty. I think I’m not the only one who already wants to hear his next song in the Lexicon.
Although most of us are no longer old enough to know network stars, that’s fine. If you are parents of children, it is already something else, and you must have heard about the Eliyahu family, who are probably the hottest thing in the virtual world. Daniel Eliyahu, the daughter of the family, also reached the stage of ‘The next star’ with ‘Shev’ by Sarit Hadad, and despite the great desire – the dream remains a dream with only 58 percent. So the crowd sat longer than Elijah expected, but so what? The supportive family stood behind her, and that’s the most important thing.
Also in yesterday’s wonderful episode, we saw a surprise audition, and this time it was Ran Denker who drove up to 21-year-old Esther Belulu, a cashier at a vegetable store. After a few screams of shock, Lulu joined Ran, at two a luxurious limousine was waiting, a red carpet and Shifta, the finalist of the previous seasons, who always came as good as Zero with an ice cube. After some time of traveling, Esther emerged on the stage, and became the heart of everyone who heard her with ‘What do you want from me’ by Hanan Ben Ari. 89 percent and shivers down my spine, from experience.
Haifa’s Eden Peretz, a 19-year-old soldier, came with a slightly different mod than her predecessors, and broke the Israeli songs with ‘Yellow’ by Coldplay, the band we all grew up with, no matter how old we are. Thanks to the combination of a caressing voice, a tenderness that is no longer heard and a captivating naivety, she took the entire pot with 71 percent, and made a lot of desire to return to Coldplay. And for her crazy performance over and over again.
are good. We have arrived at the moment heralded by the dramatic promo for the show. I will say this in five words – this was not a false alarm. Kafir Tzafir, a 32-year-old singer and rapper from Rishon Lezion, put all the cards on the table right from the start. He didn’t say much about his past in the Peja neighborhood in Petah Tikva, but he revealed everything in ‘Crime Movie’, the bare and kicking song he performed on stage. Something between black music and opera, between rap and ballad, between too black and as white as possible, gave this performance a different tone.
Zafarir succeeded in a way that many have failed in – to do something that makes you stare at this thing in front of you, and only want to hear more of it. It happened with Neta Barzilai, with Shafita, with Tamir Greenberg, and also with Eliav Zohar from this season, and it also happened yesterday with Kafir Tzafir. Bright future, did I say?