A-Ba-Ni-Bi - Izhar Cohen and AlphaBeta
Paris, France
Eurovision position: 1st with 157 points
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Lyrics |
| Israel Song Festival 1978 |  |
| Date: | 11- 02 - 1978 |
| Presenters: | Rivka Michaeli |
| Venue: | Jerusalem Teatre, Jerusalem. |
| Israel Song Festival 1 9 7 8 |
|---|
| Pos. | Artist | Title | Pnt. | Dl |
|---|
| 1 | Izhar Cohen | A-Ba-Ni-Bi | 66 | |
|---|
| 2 | Hedva Amrani | Belev Echad (In One Heart) | 66 | |
|---|
| 3 | Gali Atari | Nasich Hachalomot (The Dream Prince) | 54 | |
|---|
| 4 | Sheri | Lama Lo (Why Not) | 49 |
| 5 | Ariel Zilber | Ten Li Ko'ach (Give Me Power) | 40 |
| 6 | Yehoodit Ravitz | Misheo (Someone) | 36 | |
|---|
| 7 | Irit Dotan | Yom Hadash (A New Day) | 35 |
| 8 | Aliza Aviv | Ilani | 31 |
| 9 | Joesy Katz | Kmo Pa'am (Like It Was Before) | 23 |
| 10 | Hani Elyakim,
Motty Dichne,
David Zar
& Dafna Armoni | Akoma Na (I Will Stand Up) | 20 |
| 10 | Nava Brochin | Bikashti (I Asked For) | 20 |
| 12 | Gidi Gov | Shlosha Balaila Ba'ir
(Three At Nigh In The City) | 14 |
2nd
Hedva Amrani |
3rd
Gali Atari |
The Festival
For the first time since it started in 1960, "The Israeli Song Festival" was used to choose the Israeli song to represent Israel at the Eurovision.
It seems like this methood brought Israel some good luck since this year Israel won the Eurovision for the first time.
Izhar Cohen was the winner of the Festival with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi". Hedva
Amrani and the song "Belev Echad" (In one heart) had recieved the same amount of points like A-Ba-Ni-Bi and only after calculating
the number of times each song recieved 12 points it was announced that A-Ba-Ni-Bi is the winner.
Other interesting artists were Gali Atari, winner of next year's contest;
Gidi Gov, a very popular singer and comedian today who already participated in the Eurovision of 1974 with the Poogey band;
and Yehoodit Ravitz, also very popular today.
The Winner
Izhar Cohen and his great song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" gave Israel the taste of victory in the Eurovision for the first time.
"A-Ba-Ni-Bi" beat all the other songs in France 1978 and gave Israel the first victory.
The chorus of the song uses a special and secret language kids use when they don't want the grown ups to understand what they are
saying. "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" means "Ani", the hebrew word for "I" and the rest of the chorus is, of course, "Love You".