Nadav from Israel is the first candidate to kickstart our day. Nadav starts his performance in a black suit with golden boots and is surrounded by a dark and blue oriental backdrop. The backdrop seems to be the same from last year's performance so I am really reluctant about this.
When the second verse kicks in Nadav's joined by his dancers, but again the staging still seems too dark for my liking. It's only when the chorus kicks in that we get the golden colour, which then features the oriental backdrop again.
During the second run, Nadav's not fully going for his singing and he's out of breath.
Slightly underwhelmed so far by Israel. Their song is bringing the fun to the contest, so they should really have a word with ORF regarding the backdrop, which is not vibrant enough to me. I also fail to see why, a song which is full of oriental flavours should therefore automatically have oriental elements in the backdrop.
Also, the backing vocalists are quite static through most of the Israeli performance, get those guys involved from the start.
Still some work to be done for Israel in my opinion but there's a glimmer of hope. The addition of pyros during the first chorus, and final chorus and the oh oh oh's in the bridge really do work.
Israel, Se't' Points!