The Israeli entry for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest will be “Rak bishvilo” by Moran Mazor.

Mazor won tonight’s final of Kdam, the Israeli preselection, which had been preceded by three semi-finals and a “final chance” round.

There was controversy in the run-up to the event as The Voice winner Kathleen Rayter, who had been given the “pimp slot” at the end of the running order, withdrew just one day before the final due to concerns about jury bias.

Whatever the truth of the matter, the jury – which included former ESC participants Mira Awad, Moshe Datz, Ilanit and Dafna Dekel – clearly hadn’t decided on a winner beforehand, as they placed Ron Weinreich and Moran Mazor on an equal footing with Meital De Razon not far behind.

That meant the televote would decide things, and the public was also fairly split on who they wanted to see representing their country in Malmö – their favourite was Shani Zamir, who had been completely ignored by the juries!

With Moran Mazor and Meital De Razon coming in joint 2nd, this meant that the overall victory went to Mazor and her ballad “Rak bishvilo”.

The voters in our chatroom agreed with the verdict, rating “Rak bishvilo” as the best of the night with an average score of 7.86 out of 10, followed closely by Moran Mazuz (7.79). Thanks to Holger for counting the votes!

Israel will perform in the second half of the second semi-final of ESC 2013, to be held on Thursday May 16th.