Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007

On 7 January 2007, IBA announced that the band Teapacks was selected as the Israeli representatives for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007. A special committee consisting of music industry professionals and members from IBA considered several artists, of which Liel (who represented Switzerland in 2006 as part of six4one), and Michel Guriashvili were highly considered before Teapacks was ultimately selected.^[3] The members of the committee were Yoav Ginai (entertainment director of IBA), Yaakov Naveh (IBA artists representative), Dalia Cohen (musician and composer), Amnon Shiloni (director of Reshet Gimmel), Noam Gil-Or (editor and presenter at Reshet Gimmel), Bracha Rosenfeld (producer), Kobi Oshrat (composer), Yardena Arazi (who represented Israel in 1976, as part of Shokolad, Menta, Mastik, and in 1988), Haïm Ulliel (singer), Anastassia Michaeli (television presenter), Dafna Dekel (who represented Israel in 1992) and Itzik Yehoshua (music editor at 88FM).^[4][5] It was also announced that a national final titled Kdam Eurovision 2007 featuring four songs would take place to select their song.

Four songs, all written by band member Kobi Oz, were provided by Teapacks for the competition. Prior to the final, the songs were presented on 22 February 2007 during a special presentation programme broadcast via radio on Reshet Gimmel, Reshet Bet and 88FM.^[6]

The final took place on 27 February 2007 at the Auditorium in Dorot, hosted by Natali Atiya and Noa Barak and broadcast on Channel 1 as well as online via IBA's official Eurovision Song Contest website Eurovil. All four competing songs were performed by Teapacks and the winning song, "Push the Button", was selected by a combination of the votes from four voting groups: an expert jury of IBA representatives (40%), online voting conducted through Eurovil (20%), public voting conducted through telephone (20%) and public voting conducted through SMS (20%).^[7] In addition to the performances of the competing songs, Haïm Ulliel, the band Knesiyat Hasekhel and The Aluminum Show performed as the interval acts.

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country, the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the ten highest placed finishers in the 2006 contest are required to qualify from the semi-final in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. On 12 March 2007, a special allocation draw was held which determined the running order for the semi-final. During the allocation draw, it was determined that Israel would perform in position 2, following the entry from Bulgaria and before the entry from Cyprus. At the end of the semi-final, Israel was not announced among the top 10 entries in the semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Israel placed twenty-fourth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 17 points.^[8]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Israel and awarded by Israel in the semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Belarus in the semi-final and the final of the contest.

Points awarded to Israel (Semi-final)^[9]

Score	Country
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points
6 points	France
5 points
4 points	Lithuania
3 points	Estonia
2 points	Czech Republic
1 point	Iceland  Russia

Points awarded by Israel (Semi-final)[9] Score Country 12 points  Belarus 10 points  Latvia 8 points  Georgia 7 points  Serbia 6 points  Bulgaria 5 points  Denmark 4 points  Cyprus 3 points  Moldova 2 points  Andorra 1 point  Netherlands

Points awarded by Israel (Final)[10] Score Country 12 points  Belarus 10 points  Ukraine 8 points  Russia 7 points  Romania 6 points  Georgia 5 points  Armenia 4 points  Moldova 3 points  Serbia 2 points  Spain 1 point  Greece