Kdam Eurovision

The Kdam Eurovision (Hebrew: קדם אירוויזיון, transliteration "Kdam-Erovizyon", translation "Pre-Eurovision") in short known as the Kdam (Hebrew: קדם, lit. "Pre") is the Israeli national preselection of the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition was first introduced in 1981.

Israel has won the Eurovision Song Contest three times. Izhar Cohen and Alphabeta in 1978 and Milk and Honey in 1979 took part in the Israel Song Festival (Festival HaZemer VeHaPizmon), emerged as winners of the preselection, and went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest. Dana International, the Israeli winner in 1998 was chosen in an internal selection contest and not at Kdam.

In the 1960s, particularly with 1963 Eurovision Song Contest, Israeli singers were able to represent other European countries rather their home country, as this was before there were television broadcasts in Israel. That year, Israel was represented by Esther Ofarim for Switzerland (with a song in French), and Carmela Corren for Austria. Regular television broadcasts of broadcasts in Israel began in May 1968.

In 1972, Ilanit and Shlomo Zach argued that the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was entitled to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, since it was a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). IBA agreed and asked that Ilanit represent Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest in Edinburgh in 1972. But the registration period had already closed for the 1972 competition, thus Israel's first participation was delayed by one year. In 1973, Ilanit won the bid to represent Israel in Luxembourg at that year’s Eurovision Song Contest, becoming the first official Israeli entry to Eurovision. A committee of the IBA was in charge of selecting the song. Ehud Manor and Nurit Hirsh wrote the chosen song, "Ey Sham" in Hebrew, although in that year's contest, entrants did not have to sing in their national languages. Manor explained that they saw the importance of having that song represent Israel in Hebrew, but were concerned that the tone of the words not be jarring to the ears of European listeners. Ilanit placed fourth in the first-ever Israeli entry.

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