Israel: Netta – Toy

Martin: The bookmakers’ favourite by some distance. Already running away with the OGAE poll. Haven’t we been here before? This time last year, the doubters were busy trying to come up with coherent arguments for why Francesco Gabbani’s “Occidentali’s karma” wouldn’t win the 2017 contest. (And they had a point, as it turned out.) Now it’s the turn of Netta Barzilai from Israel, whose “Toy” leapt straight to the top of the prediction charts almost as soon as it was leaked.

While I don’t know whether she’ll win in Lisbon, let’s make one thing clear: Netta is no Gabbani. “Toy” is in English, for a start – always helpful when you have something to say – and the number of cover versions already doing the rounds on YouTube shows that its lyrical message is striking a chord. Moreover, it achieves that rare combination of being contemporary while also sounding like something you could only encounter in Eurovision.

Of course there are still far too many unknowns to pronounce Israel the 2018 winner just yet – the staging, the looper, whether Europe will be put off by the chicken noises – but at least this year I can understand why the current favourite occupies that role.

Felix: Last year, I was sure Italy wouldn’t win even though I did quite like it. This year, by contrast, I can totally see why the top favourite is the top favourite even though I don’t really like “Toy”. I’m just not the right audience for this kind of song.

Shi: When I voted for Netta in the Israeli preselection, without knowing the song, it was because I wanted my country to take a risk, and the other options promised to be more of the same we sent before. Just seeing the response, whatever the result will be, proves it was a risk worth taking.

video and title image source: eurovision.tv