Israeli-Moroccan singer Noa Kirel to the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 final

Noa Kirel has qualified for the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, which will take place in Liverpool. With her song “Unicorn”, the Israeli-Moroccan singer received the highest number of votes in the first semi-final.

After her performance in the first semi-final, Noa Kirel stated that she was proud to represent her country, Israel. “There is no feeling like this! I felt like you were all with me. I promise to do everything – and I mean everything – to make the people of Israel happy during the Grand Final,” she added in a statement to Israel’s public television channel Canafter the announcement of the results.

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According to predictions, the singer will finish in seventh place, which would mark Israel’s best performance since Netta Barzilaï won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018 with her song “Toy”. In addition to Noa Kirel, Croatia, Moldova, Switzerland, Finland, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Sweden, Serbia and Norway also qualified in this first semi-final. On Saturday, they will compete against the participants of the second semi-final, scheduled for this Thursday, including Ukraine (last year’s winner), the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. Swedish-Moroccan Loreen is the big favorite of this year’s contest with her song “Tattoo”.

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Noa Kirel has a Moroccan mother and is currently one of the most popular singers in Israel. She was selected by an internal Kan committee to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, a first as the previous eight candidates were chosen through talent contests. Since Israel’s first participation in 1973, the country has already won the Eurovision Song Contest four times.