Forgotten Gems – Israel 1995
So seeing as my last two posts covered the topics of Israel and the Golden era of the contest respectively, I thought why not combine the two topics together to give you a forgotten Israeli gem from that era.
So folks, I present to you Liora and “Amen”, a beautiful ballad sung in Hebrew. Now Hebrew would never normally have struck me as a language that would sound beautiful in song, but this entry from Israel changed my opinion on the matter entirely and introduced me to some of their older entries particularly Milk & Honey’s “Hallelujah” of 1979. “Amen” follows a very similar structure and subject matter.
The song itself was structured as a prayer to God (not everybody’s cup of tea in fairness) but I think the performance, the quality of the singing and the gradual build up towards the song’s climax really showed that a simple song done well, though it may not have won or come close to winning (8th in a field of 23) could still find resonance in the mind of a young Eurofanatic back in 1995. I hope you enjoy!
And for those that are interested, the English translation can be found here.
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Comments (1)
OMG, I'd forgotten how the Israeli's used the same strutting choreogrpahy in virtually all of their 80s and 90s entries! I LOVED this song! It's got about five key changes, power fisting, dorky male backing dancers you secretly would and was quite a beautiful melody to mark 50 years of the liberation of the concentration camps and the end of WWII. It has also helped me choose tomorrow's hit of the day! Stay tuned Israeli fans!!!