Its been exactly 20 years since Israel won the annual Eurovision Competition and it did so in a style that no-one will ever forget.  The song was DIva and was performed by the transgender singer Dana International.  It was a real first for this 60 year old competition and whilst the win was celebrated around the world, Israel’s Orthodox community was apoplectic with rage.

Since then Eurovision has changed dramatically in the last decade alone, particularly following the geopolitical changes in Central and Eastern Europe, which bumped Eurovision’s number of participating countries from 25 to a current total of 43.  Even with such an increased number of entries and the first round of the competition still being a whole week away, everyone is making bets that Israel is set to steal the competition again.

Their song is called Toys and is stunningly performed in an extremely unique style by Netta Barzilai, known simply as Netta, and she is the real reason why everyone is so certain that Israel is the winner. Netta uses a vocal looper which is a mobile recording device that allows her to record her voice, several times in a loop until a playback is formed, and she describes her sound as a freestyle, Mediterranean women’s anthem with Oriental/Mizrachi sounds, plus she’s unleashed a chicken cluck that has now been heard around the world.

The exceptionally talented Netta is like a breath of fresh air, and after next week will be a name that everyone will know as the Final usually reaches a global TV audience of 180 million people (to put that in perspective, US Super Bowl reaches 111 million)