Israel Song Festival

Israel Song Festival (Hebrew: פסטיבל הזמר והפזמון, romanized: Festival HaZemer VeHaPizmon, lit. 'Singer and chorus festival') was an annual music competition organized by the Israel Broadcasting Authority. In its final years, it served as the national final to select Israel's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.

The idea for the competition came from Kol Yisrael producer Israel Daliyot after seeing people celebrating Domenico Modugno's victory in the Sanremo Music Festival 1959 while on vacation in Rome.^[1] Daliyot approached the Israel Broadcasting Authority, and with the involvement of the Prime Minister's Office, the first festival was held as part of the 1960 Independence Day celebrations.

The festival became an annual fixture in the Independence Day celebration over the following years, although it was not held in 1962, 1962 and 1968, when it was replaced by other variety shows. In 1975, the festival was cancelled by then IBA director-general Yitzhak Livni, as he considered the festival's songs to be of low quality,^[2] and was replaced by another singing festival that didn't air to television. In 1976, there was another replacement called "The Singing Celebration", which worked differently; there was no competition, and the participants performed two songs each, one previously-released song and one new song. The festival was reinstated in 1977, and by the following year it was designated as the national preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest, and until the festival was cancelled, in 1981, the competition was held between January and March.

After the 1980 edition, the competition was replaced by Kdam Eurovision as the national final for Eurovision. Attempts were made to reinstate the competition, first in 1987, as part of the Arad Hebrew Music Festival, with three further attempts in 2000–2001, 2005–2006 and 2013.^[3]

Between 1960 and 1966, each song was performed twice, once by a male singer and once by a female singer, in order to give emphasis on the song itself rather the performer. In 1967, the format was changed so each song was performed once. Following the main competition, an intermission was held during which the viewers could vote for their favorite song, while an interval act was performed. In 1969, votes from five ballots around Israel were added to the total of votes.

• Kdam Eurovision

• The Festivals (in Hebrew)