Israeli singer and looping artist Netta Barzilai won the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal, with her lone song, “Toy,” which promotes female emancipation. She was hailed as a deserving winner by British author J.K. Rowling, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dubbed her as Israel’s best ambassador. After 1978, 1979, and 1998, her victory made Israel the winner of the contest for the fourth time. She previously won season five of “HaKokhav HaBa,” Israel’s national competition for the Eurovision Song Contest, in February 2018 with her performance of a mashup of “Tik Tok” by Kesha and “Gangnam Style” by Psy, which received 210 points from the judges to give her the victory and the right to represent Israel in the competition. The song “Toy,” which was mostly performed in English with one Hebrew phrase, was first made available on March 11. The music video for the song has amassed 20 million views. She also performed the song on April 14, 2018, in Amsterdam at the biggest Eurovision promotional event, “Eurovision in Concert,” before giving her final performance.
Become a Hero
When Netta Barzilai was between the ages of 18 and 19, she served a year in the Nahal militia organization and played in the Israeli Navy Band. She came across a video of an artist called Kimbera performing while using a looper, a musical instrument that repeats the music to make it appear as though multiple people were performing. She made the decision to purchase it, but first, she needed to save money by working a part-time waitress job.
Yehuda Eder, the head of the Rimon Music School, claims that by the time she enrolled there in 2016, she had already attained instrument mastery and had established herself as a one-woman ensemble. She and three others co-founded the improvisational singing group “The Experiment” in 2016, and she served as its main vocalist while touring Israel.
She entered the fifth season of “HaKokhav HaBa,” the entryway to the Eurovision Song Contest, in September 2017 after finishing her one-year course at Rimon. She advanced to the first round of the competition, Heat 1, after her performance of “Rude Boy” by Rihanna garnered 82% of the votes. On January 4, 2018, she played “Hey Mama” by David Guetta to join three other contestants in moving on to the next round.
She effectively navigated Heats 4, 5, and 6 to reach the quarterfinal, where her rendition of the Spice Girls’ song “Wannabe” earned her the highest rating of 90%. She beat Riki Ben Ari in a duel on February 8 using the music “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera, and on February 13 she fell to her again in the opening round of the final before being saved by the judges.
In the second round, she performed a mashup of Psy’s “Gangnam Style” and Kesha’s “Tik Tok,” receiving 104 points from the judges and 106 points from the audience to take first place. She competed at Eurovision with the song “Toy,” written by Doron Medalie and Stav Beger, and won the event on May 12, 2018, earning a total of 529 points from two rounds.
Overcoming issues with self-esteem
When Ninet Tayeb won the Israeli reality competition “Kokhav Nolad” in 2003, Netta Barzilai, then 10 years old, was already familiar with the real music scene. However, she did not have the confidence to continue a music career when she was younger. Netta Barzilai, a sensitive youngster with the spirit of an artist, was the target of bullying at school because she was overweight and wished to blend in like a “normal” person.
She was an unpopular child who experienced frequent humiliation, which later contributed to her having a poor sense of worth. She wanted to major in psychology or education and become a school teacher because she felt unqualified to be a singing icon.
She also spent many years working as a psychologist in Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed. Over time, she became more confident as she performed for the Israeli Naval Band. She met Avshalom Ariel, the musician who produced her song “Toy,” while working on a theater production. He believed she could offer something fresh to the Eurovision stage, which she ultimately did and did, winning the hearts of many fans.
Behind The Scenes
Israel’s Hod HaSharon was the place of Netta Barzilai’s birth on January 22, 1993. She was raised in the Tel Aviv area along with her two siblings. Her family moved to Nigeria when she was just three months old because her father had a job there, but they subsequently moved back to Israel. She picked up the rhythms of African lullabies that her neighborhood nanny used to perform for her while she was living in Nigeria. One of her siblings studies double bass at Rimon while the other raps, so music runs in the family.
Estimated Net Worth
One of the wealthiest and most well-known singers of world music is Netta Barzilai. Our analysis of Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider revealed that Netta Barzilai has a net value of $5 million.