Nostalgia Sunday – Eurovision and A-ba-ni-bi’s lasting legacy

May 10, 2009 - 12:40 AM by Rachel Neiman · 3 Comments
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Life, Music, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture 

The 53rd annual Eurovision song contest takes place this week! Oh, joy! And if you live under a rock, or in a country where they have better things to do, and don’t know about this annual Europe-wide musical extravaganza, here is a brief explanation.eurovision_logo_1

This year, Israel will be represented by singers Noa and Mira Awad, and while we wish the duo well, their entry, a message song called “There must be a better way”, isn’t the sort of light fare that has put Israel up top in years gone by.

Israel won Eurovision for the first time in 1977, with the entry A-ba-ni-bi, sung by Izhar Cohen and Apha-beta. It was a great moment in Israeli pop culture history, when we proved to the world we could be a nation like any other, crafting light, catchy Europop ditties, wearing tight outfits and dancing to the disco beat. (When Israel won Eurovision again the following year, national euphoria hit heights not seen since the Six Day War).

Over the years, it transpires, A-ba-ni-bi has developed a following, particularly among those nations whose agenda includes proving to the world they could be a nation like any other, crafting light, catchy Europop ditties, wearing tight outfits and dancing to the disco beat. Here we present a variety of renditions, starting with a camp version in Thai:

Chinese Mandarin:

Iceland’s 2008 Eurovision Song Contest entrants Euroband:

Netherlands:

A trance version in Spanish:

And of course, the good old original:

Izhar Cohen is still around, still performing and even appeared in a commercial for the Israel Postal Service. For more versions of A-ba-ni-bi, check out NME and the EuroCovers blog. And check out the official Eurovision YouTube site for more videos, past and present.

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Game On!

November 14, 2008 - 12:30 PM by DavidS · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General 

Intense, heated arguments, where opponents vociferously defend their preferred choice; hats, t-shirts, stickers, and buttons announcing to the world whose side you’re on; anthems, loyalty oaths, and in-depth analyses in the paper, on TV, the web, and “talking heads” who get paid to blather on incessantly, trying to figure out who’s going to win. And, finally, the big showdown, the final battle in which one contender tastes the thrill of victory – or the agony of the feet (I mcnn1114.jpgean defeat!).

It could be only one of two things: Sports – or politics. Both inspire feelings of glory, contempt, anger, and, of course, hope. The correlation between the two is an interesting example of how opposites meet. Politics are in the front of the newspaper and sports in the back, so you could essentially read the paper from right to left and get the same information – which is good for us Hebrew readers. But that’s another subject.

Here’s another example of the correlation between sports and politics – with a Hebrew (Israeli) connection, no less. On election night, a hologram of CNN political correspondent  Jessica Yellin was beamed into the network’s New York newsroom, making it seem as if she were standing there giving her report. But she wasn’t in New York – she was in Chicago covering the celebration of Barack Obama’s election by residents of his hometown. And the technology that made this possible was developed by a company based in Kfar Saba, called SportVU – which designed the technology for broadcasters of sporting events!

According to CNN, network officials saw the system in action at soccer games in Europe, and decided it would work for them on election night. SportVu has been used extensively in Germany, Spain and Italy, company marketing director Shimon Katzubes told me in a recent interview. It’s easy to run, too, Katzubes says. “All we need are three stationary cameras – no panning is necessary – to take in the live action, and the SportVU applications do the rest.” The fact that a system developed for sporting events could be deployed so easily to broadcast an election may just be coincidental – technology is supposed to be multitaskable. But what does the correlation between sports and politics mean for voters? That we should be looking at elections as spectator sports? Something to think about for 2012, I guess.

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