The Netherlands has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 61 times since making its debut as one of the seven countries at the first contest in 1956. The country has missed only four contests, twice because the dates coincided with Remembrance of the Dead and twice because of being relegated due to poor results the previous year. The Netherlands hosted the contest in Hilversum (1958), Amsterdam (1970), twice in The Hague and Rotterdam.
Izhar Cohen is an Israeli singer who won the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest.
Israel has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 43 times since making its debut in 1973. Israel was able to enter the contest as the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was an active member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which is responsible for the event. Israel has won the contest four times, and has hosted the contest in Jerusalem twice in 1979 and 1999. Israel hosted the contest for the third time in Tel Aviv in 2019.
"Sameyakh" or "Sameach" was the Israeli entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000. It was performed in Hebrew by the pop band Ping-Pong, a quartet consisting of two males and two females, who had originally entered the contest as a joke. At the end of the performance the group waved small flags of both Israel and Syria; the waving of the Flag of Syria led to the performance being disendorsed by the Israeli Broadcasting Authority after the group had refused to withdraw the use of the flag for the final. The performance also garnered controversy when the group, at the last minute, decided to sing the song's English title in place of the Hebrew title, after previously having stated that they would sing the song entirely in Hebrew.
PingPong is an Israeli pop quartet that represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2000 with the song Sameach.
"Olé, Olé" was the Israeli entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1985, performed in Hebrew by Izhar Cohen. This was Cohen's second participation, in 1978 he and the group Alphabeta had won the contest with "A-Ba-Ni-Bi".
The Kdam Eurovision in short known as the Kdam was the Israeli national preselection of the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition was first introduced in 1981 and was discontinued in 2014.
Koit Toome, is an Estonian singer and musical actor.
The United Kingdom has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 63 times. It first took part in the second contest in 1957 and has entered every year since 1959. Along with Sweden and the Netherlands, the UK is one of only three countries with Eurovision victories in four different decades. It is one of the "Big Five" countries, along with France, Germany, Italy and Spain, that are automatically prequalified for the final each year as they are the biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The British public broadcaster, the BBC, broadcasts the event and has, on multiple occasions, organised different national selection processes to choose the British entry. The United Kingdom has won the Eurovision Song Contest five times, and has finished as runner-up on a record fifteen occasions. The UK has hosted the contest a record eight times, four times in London and once each in Edinburgh (1972), Brighton (1974), Harrogate (1982) and Birmingham (1998).
Israel was present at the Eurovision Song Contest 1986, held in Bergen, Norway.
Israel participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "There Must Be Another Way" written by Noa, Mira Awad and Gil Dor. The song was performed by Noa and Mira Awad, who were internally selected by the Israeli broadcaster Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) in January 2009 to compete at the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia. The song Noa and Awad would perform at Eurovision was selected through the national final Kdam Eurovision 2009 which took place on 2 March 2009 that featured four songs. "Einaiych " emerged as the winning song after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from two regional juries, a jury panel and a public vote.
Events in the year 1986 in Israel.
Laurent Amir Khlifa Khedider Haddad, better known as Amir Haddad, or simply as Amir, is a French-Israeli singer and songwriter. He took part in 2006 in the Israeli music competition Kokhav Nolad, released his album Vayehi in 2011 and was a finalist in French competition The Voice: la plus belle voix as part of Team Jenifer finishing third in the competition. He represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "J'ai cherché", which finished in 6th place.
Nadav Guedj is an Israeli singer and actor who represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. He is the winner of season two of HaKokhav HaBa. Guedj was born in Paris.
Israel participated in, hosted, and won the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest, which was held on 31 March 1979 at the International Convention Center's Ussishkin Auditorium in Jerusalem. Their entry, "Hallelujah," was composed by Kobi Oshrat, written by Shimrit Orr, and performed by Milk and Honey.
Israel participated in and won the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest, held on 22 April 1978 in Paris, France. It marked Israel's first win at the contest and the first win for a country outside of continental Europe. The winning song was "A-Ba-Ni-Bi," composed by Nurit Hirsh, written by Ehud Manor, and performed by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta.
Hovav Sekulets, known by his stage name Hovi Star, is an Israeli singer. He represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "Made of Stars" by Doron Medalie.
Imri Ziv, also known as IMRI, is an Israeli singer and voice actor. After winning HaKokhav HaBa, he represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kyiv with the song "I Feel Alive" finishing in 3rd place in the second semi-finals and in 23rd place in the finals.
Israel was present at the 1987 Eurovision Song Contest, which was held at the Palais du Centenaire in Brussels, Belgium. Their entry was "Shir Habatlanim," written and composed by Zohar Laskov and performed by actor-comedians Natan Datner and Avi Kushnir, who dubbed themselves the Lazy Bums. The song was selected through Israel's traditional national final, the Kdam Eurovision.
Yaakov "Kobi" Marimi is an Israeli singer and actor who represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.
