
Israel participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song „There Must Be Another Way“ written by Noa, Mira Awad and Gil Dor. The song was performed by Noa and Mira Awad, who were internally selected by the Israeli broadcaster Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) in January 2009 to compete at the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia. The song Noa and Awad would perform at Eurovision was selected through the national final Kdam Eurovision 2009 which took place on 2 March 2009 that featured four songs. „Einaiych (There Must Be Another Way)“ emerged as the winning song after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from two regional juries, a jury panel and a public vote.
Israel was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2009. Performing during the show in position 10, „There Must Be Another Way“ was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 16 May. It was later revealed that Israel placed seventh out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 75 points. In the final, Israel performed in position 2 and placed sixteenth out of the 25 participating countries, scoring 53 points.
Artist selection
On 11 January 2009, IBA announced that Achinoam Nini, under the artistic name Noa, and Mira Awad were selected as the Israeli representatives for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. This was the first time an Israeli Arab singer had been selected to represent Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest. A professional committee with members from IBA considered several artists, of which Harel Skaat, Marina Maximillian Blumin and Maya Bouskilla were invited to participate before Noa and Awad were ultimately selected. Negotiations with Skaat broke down due to a legal dispute with his former record label Hed Arzi Music which forbade him from recording any new material, while Blumin and Bouskilla had turned down the offer to represent Israel due to issues with their current military services in the Israeli army. The members of the committee were Yoav Ginai (entertainment director of IBA), Noam Gil-Or (director of Reshet Gimmel), Izchak Sonnenschein (Head of Israeli Eurovision delegation), Yuval Ganor (director of 88FM) and Galya Giladi (music editor and presenter at 88FM). It was also announced that a national final titled Kdam Eurovision 2009 featuring four songs would take place to select their song.
There was some controversy about the duo performing together for Eurovision. Several Jewish and Arab local artists and intellectuals called for Awad to step down because, in their view, her participation would convey a false impression of national coexistence that would be used to cover up the deaths of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. In an interview on National Public Radio, Awad acknowledged this criticism, and said, „We’re not naïve enough to think that we’re representing any existing situation. We are trying to show a possible situation that we believe is possible if we just make the necessary efforts.“
Kdam Eurovision 2009

Four songs, all written by Noa, Mira Awad and Gil Dor and performed in English, Hebrew and Arabic, were provided by the performers for the competition „with the goal of using Eurovision as a means to convey a message of peace in these difficult times“, as stated by Noa in regards to the competing songs. Prior to the final, the songs were presented on 24 February 2009 during a special presentation programme broadcast via radio on Reshet Gimmel, hosted by Avi Etgar.
The final took place on 2 March 2009 at the Nakdi TV Studios in Jerusalem, hosted by Eden Harel and broadcast on Channel 1 as well as online via IBA’s official Eurovision Song Contest website Eurovil. The show was also broadcast via radio in Hebrew on Reshet Gimmel and in Arabic on Reshet Dalet. All four competing songs were performed by Noa and Mira Awad and the winning song, „Einaiych (There Must Be Another Way)“, was selected by a combination of the votes from four voting groups: two regional juries (30%), an expert jury of IBA representatives (30%) and a public vote (40%). The public vote that took place during the show was conducted through telephone and SMS. The singers described „There Must Be Another Way“ not as a song of peace, but as a song that emphasises hope and understanding through common humanity and a call to respect the humanity of others.
Draw | Song | Jury | Televote | Total | Place | |
Hebrew Title | English Title | |||||
1 | „Kol Shniya“ (כל שנייה) | „Second Chance“ | 24 | 8 | 32 | 4 |
2 | „Na’amin Bachalom“ (נאמין בחלום) | „Faith in the Light“ | 48 | 24 | 72 | 3 |
3 | „Bo’i Lirkod Iti“ (בואי לרקוד איתי) | „Will You Dance With Me“ | 36 | 48 | 84 | 2 |
4 | „Einaiych“ (עינייך) | „There Must Be Another Way“ | 72 | 40 | 112 | 1 |
Detailed Jury Votes
Draw | Song | Regional | Juries | Expert | Total |
Kiryat Shmona | Be’er Sheva | Jury | |||
1 | „Kol Shniya“ | 9 | 9 | 6 | 24 |
2 | „Na’amin Bachalom“ | 15 | 15 | 18 | 48 |
3 | „Bo’i Lirkod Iti“ | 3 | 3 | 30 | 36 |
4 | „Einaiych“ | 18 | 18 | 36 | 72 |