The marathon selection Israel uses for the Eurovision Song Contest, HaKokhav HaBa L’Eurovizion (Translation: The Next Star for Eurovision. This format is also known as Rising Star) has just come to a close and has crowned its winner: Kobi Marimi!

Kobi garnered praise from the judges and the audience alike from his first audience already and managed to go all the way!
The final started tonight with Maya Bouskilla, Shefita, Ketreyah and Kobi Marimi.
Ketreyah and Kobi had won their first duels and between Shefita and Maya, the jury (among which former Eurovision participant Harel Skaat) decided t to save the former.
In the superfinal that followed, the jury members, plus some additional juries, awarded the contestants 8, 10 and 12 points and that gave the following outcome:

Result of the jury vote:
1. Kobi Marimi 102
2. Shefita 90
3. Ketreyah 78

After a short musical break, the televoting results were revealed and Kobi quite landslided that one as well!

Result of the televote:
1. Kobi Marimi 113 (41.8 %)
2. Ketreyah 87 (32.2 %)
3. Shefita 70 (25.9 %)

Resulting in this:

Final results:
1. Kobi Marimi 215
2. Ketreyah 165
3. Shefita 160

Here is Kobi performing the Beatles’ ‘Let It Be’ tonight, the song he also reprised after he had been announced as the winner:

Kobi will get a song now especially written for his as his Eurovision entry and the release of that is currently planned for the 10th of March!