Eurovision ‘postcards’ provide glamorous montage of Israel

During the first semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest Tuesday night, Israeli broadcaster Kan revealed its “postcard” videos taken of participants as they toured sites throughout the host country.

The short video of each singer or group was shown prior to their performance. Kan also broadcast a version combining all the clips into a two-minute, 18-second clip.

The Israeli broadcaster had each performer joined by dancers in dozens of locations around Israel, from beaches and boardwalks to vineyards, ancient fortresses and solar panel fields.

Some of the singers danced themselves, while others had dancers accompanying them while they strolled through the sites.

But it’s the Israeli backdrop that shined in the clips, including works of Israeli architecture, such as the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, the galleries of the Israel Museum and Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the soaring tower of the Ashalim solar power station and the historic surroundings of the Jerusalem YMCA.

There are the natural surroundings of date palm fields, surfers at the Michmoret beach, the wide expanses of the Ramon Crater, the amphitheater of Caesarea and the manicured lawns and flower beds of the Bahai Gardens in Haifa.

The two-minute mash-up is set to a fast-paced modern version of “A-Ba-Ni-Bi,” the 1978 song sung by Izhar Cohen and Alphabeta that scored Israel its first Eurovision win.

It also affords a glimpse of the video for Israel’s Kobi Marimi, as he dances with a woman swathed in purple at Jerusalem’s Yemin Moshe neighborhood. His “postcard” will only air in full when he sings on May 18, the final night of the competition.