Posted on 05/20/2005 12:06:10 AM PDT by Eurotwit
Israeli singer Shiri Maimon on Thursday evening got through to the finals of the 50th Eurovision Song Contest after an exhilarating performance with her song 'Hasheket Shenishar', at the semi-final stage. Maimon was one of 10 artists who were distilled among 25 contestants at the semi-final in a packed Sports Palace in Ukrainian capital of Kiev. The final will be held in Kiev on Saturday night. Maimon will appear eleventh in the running order of 24 countries. Advertisement Maimon grew up in Kiryat Haim and entered the entertainment business as a young child. After completing her military service in the Air Force's entertainment troupe, Maimon achieved fame when she came in second in the first season of the television blockbuster "A Star Is Born." She handily took first place in the national competition in March to select Israel's song for Eurovision.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Good luck on Saturday.
Cheers.
ping
She's lovely. Is this like American Idol or something similar?
Oy, what a babe!!!
:-)
It's a far older program. It is celebrating its 50'th anniversity this year.
It's kind of cool that Ukraine won it last year, so they are hosting the finals this year.
The Norwegian act who also qualified for the big final on saturday had a big orange flag that they waved around in order to celebrate the orange revolution.
It is generally one of the most watched (and hated :-) shows in most European countries. Certainly in Scandinavia. ABBA for instance got its international breakthrough by winning it in the seventies with Waterloo. Others who got their international breakthrough there was Celine Dion who won competing for Switzerland.
Some have claimed that the contest in recent years have been marred by political voting. The commentators on Swedish tv a few years back got into trouble when they came with some disparaging remarks about the Israeli contender. Similarly, the BBC commentator which usually is quite funny, threatened to mobilise the British gun boats outside critical capitals in order to motivate the European public :-)
Anyways, its very camp, but IMHO great fun.
BTW: There was a political scandal this year as well, as Lebanon was to take part for the first time, but Lebanese TV demanded that they should not show Israel's contestant, and was thrown out of the competition.
Cheers.
Oh, she sings too? Man thats a bonus!
(Insert typical male bashing after this post!)
Same reason as this one is news.
Here are some threads about the previous incidents:
Swedes, Belgians told not to vote for Israel in Eurovision
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/689702/posts
"Lebanon withdraws from Eurovision", the rise of the Tele-ban
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1366053/posts
A bit more politics. lol.
Just read that some dissapointed Dutch fans (Holland failed to qualify) are going to vote no to the EU constitution in revenge for for the voting last night.
So the Eurovision can be good for something :-)
Cheers.
ping
hehe. I seem to remember something like that, but I think I missed the final that year as I was in Australia.
That said, the mood was a bit different in the 90's during the oslo process and before the second intifada.
Eurovision is also quite a cult him among the gay crown, and I suspect many of them voted en masse for Dana International.
Cheers.
Ahh.. You better watch it. It's always good for a laugh.
And then you can chat with your collegues around the watercooler monday morning about how awful it all was :-)
Cheers.
Alright. I can understand that. Good luck with your job hunting.
BTW: I walked out of my office (an American company in Norway)on 911 when several collegues (Norwegian) started spouting crap like "America had it coming...It's time they got a wee bit of their own medicine. etc" just as the towers were still falling.
Need to run.
Have a good one and welcome to freerepublic,
Euro.
I told her I thought we were justified in attacking Afghanistan but that I was still undecided on Iraq and one of her little cronies SPIT ON ME.
__________________________________________________________
That is nothing! I had a party at my house and this girl wanted to talk politics (ie George Bush is evil). I tried to debate her on every one of her "points" but she would just shout at me. I never shout when I debate (or any other time) as I cannot stand shouting, I mean I really hate it, if someone shouts then I walk away. In the end I told her that if she would not speak reasonably that we should end the conversation. This prompted her to scream some more then try and get her boyfriend to beat me up.
And they were guests in my house! We have some hardcore liberals (read idiots) in the UK.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.