Ping Pong - Same'ach (Be Hapy)
Stockholm, Sweden
Eurovision position: 22nd with 7 points

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The committee
On the 6th of January 2000, after two years of succesful choises by the Eurovision committe, the 2000 Eurovision committe met together at the Dan-Acadia Hotel in Herzelyia in order to choose the Israeli entry.
The members of the commitee were Irit Linor (autor and writer), Yizhar Cohen (winner ESC 1978, 5th 1985) journalists: Amos Oren, Gal Ochhovsky, Itzik Jousha and Amir Kaminer. song writer and the one who wrote winning ESC 1998 song "Diva", Yoav Ginai, Musician Menashe Ran-Lev and two members of IBA managment Svetlana Alecsandrov and Adi Hadar. most of the committee members are known to the Israelis.
82 songs were submitted to the commitee that year, including many songs by famous artists, like Michal Amdurski and Sarit hadad, but After few hours of deliberations an annonymous group called Ping-Pong was chosen to represent Israel in the ESC.

The choise
The group members of Ping-Pong were two female singers - A'hal Eden and Ifat Giladi, and two journalists - Roy Arad (Chicky) and Guy Asif (GuyGuy), who has also written and composed the song.
Ofira Yoseffi, an amazing soul singer, who competed in the Kdam Eurovision of 1989 with her sister and again in 1991 as a solo snger had reach the second position. Michal Amdurski, a very popular dance singer, reached the third. Efrat Rotem's song from last year, which reached the 3rd position, was nominated again this year, but was disqualified, as the song was already been heard on Israeli radio. Poor Efrat!

The group
If Dana International's selection as Israel's entry to the ESC in 1998 was controvesial, this one was even greater.The group Ping Pong was established within Tel Aviv's most odd and bohemic sectors. They do not regard themselves with great importance, nor do anybody else. When they sent their song, "Same'ach", to the Eurovision committee it was a joke, and they even forgot all about it.
Guy Assif, known as GuyGuy, was the daily paper "Ma'ariv"'s deputy editor of the culture magazine and the editor of IBA's culture programme. His best friend, Roy S.Chiky Arad ( the S. stands for sexy) is also a journalist. He is known for his fondness to disco clubs, shiny second handed suits and water pistoles...(br) The two girls, A'hal and Ifat, never dreamed of a musical career. They were called on board by Arad - Ahal was his flatmate and Ifat is his ex-girlfriend.
The song "Same'ach" (which should be pronounced Sameyach) was one of the songs in their debut album. The group members see this song as a feminist declaration because of the line: "I need a cucumber"...
Their selection fell on the group with total surprise. Arad forgot all about it, Eden was not in Israel at the moment and the group's manager, Ronen Ben-Tal, was having a hard time facing the media's need for details. He commanded silence on the members. Only Assif said: "As the song's moto goes, I'm happy we won and we are proud to represent Israel. Anyways, I heard the Swede's are good looking..."
"Same'ach" overcame songs by famous artists in Israel. When it was first played it was obvious that most of the committee liked it - they just burst into laugh. But not everybody thought it was the best choise.
Avihu Medina, a well known artist and a committee member, thought Israel is exepected to have a national disgrace on May 13th: "This song sounds like a 6 year old girl's song. It's childish and stupid. I don't understand why all the countries make an effort to come up with good entries while we have to bother the audience with three minutes of this nonscence. I can't imagine even one sane person who will vote for it". Another member, Yoav Ginay who wrote the lyrics for "Diva", thinks this song will be a hit in Israel at least: "It's a nostalgic song with a crazy beat which makes you smile. There's no doubt it is not a serious song". Irit Linur, member of the committee: "It is a very stupid song but I like it, and there's no need to search for a special meaning in it. Some of us liked it and some went to throw up after we heard it. It is a worthy song. We are not fighting to save the future of Israel here".

The big controversy
The problems concerning the chosen song start falling on the group very soon after they were chosen; Only few days after the selections there was a demand by the singer Ofira Yosefi (Kdams 1989 and 1991), composer Yoram Zadok (Israel '86) and lyricist Hamutal Ben Ze'ev (Israel '85 and '95) that the song will be disqualified from represnting Israel, and to chose their entry "Tikva" (Hope), which reached the second place in the pre-selection with only one point less than Ping Pong's.
The writers of the song claim that "Same'ach" didn't meet the standarts the IBA had set itself, by pointing that all the entries which were submitted to the committee, should have been composed and writen by AKUM (Israel's composers and lyricists association). members - Roy Arad and Guy Assif are not members of AKUM.
Zadok and Ben-Ze'ev also claim that some members in the committee have personal and professional relationships with the winning entry's composers, a fact that questions the sincerity of the selection. The two refrained from giving names, but it seems they regarded Gal Ochovsky, a committee member, who is the editor of Guy Assif in "Ma'ariv"'s culture magazine, and Assif is his editor in Ochovsky's culture magazine on IBA.
The demand didn't help them, and the IBA had decided to send Ping-Pong anyway, claiming the group's manager is indeed a member of AKUM, a decision that the IBA is sorry about untill this day.

On the Eurovision week in Stockholm, the group began to cause problems, as they insisted of waving the Syrian flag during theire performance. Syria is an enemy country to israel, and the IBA demanded that Ping-Pong would not use its flags in theire performance. IBA had threatend that it would pull its hand from the entry. Ping-Pong did not agree to compermise, held an urgent press conference and declared that they prefer not to perform if they could not wave the flags. The IBA decided that Ping-Pong will represent itself and not the IBA and the state of Israel.
Ping-Pong had recieved a lot of media attention during the Eurovision week, due to this controversial action, a thing that did not help them rise behind the 3rd last position with only 7 points.
When the group returned to israel they were being sew by the IBA, which demand them to pay for all the expenses of theire trip to Stockholm. The song "Same'ach" was hardly ever heard on Israeli radio nor TV, and the band's debut album was sold in very few numbers.