Never mind if the German singer sucks or not, the show is still as political as it has been for years. An example was when the votes were given, they said quite openly and our 12 points go to our friends or to our neighbors. The Israel map stayed on less time than any other country. And what's with this new voting rule to vote from the beginning, how can you vote from the beginning if you have not seen all the artists perform. And could you tell me what are we voting for, I thought it was the song but it seems if you wear less the better and have a few clowns on stage better still. And what's with all this English I was not a where that many of the countries that participated official language is English. Please bring back the original rules, juries only, who know about music, singers and no clowns, and sing in the language of the country or sing only in English. As for Harel, congrats on the three awards, shame that you went off key and its a shame they had to show that part again when they showed all the countries again but thats politics. Never mind we can always win next year I suppose even if it means going to Germany just don't mention the war.

Israel map was less time than any other? so you sat there timing how long Portugal map or Geman map was there for example? what a load of *&££. Eurovision probably wouldnt have Israel in the European song contest if they didnt want us. Probably only someone like you, that remembers the OLDEN days of voting would mention the the war whilst on a trip to Germany, despite Germany being one of Israel's top destinations. Get with the times. I will be voting with my iPad next year for Israel again!!

Most of your critics are correct. The reason why they decided that any country can sing a song in English is that because English is generally understood and most songs in hit parades are in English. The English sound does not sound "weird" as other languages might sound in the ears of the beholder. Hebrew e.g. is a harsh language with the rough g. Like Dutch is. Some might not like it and prefer the softer French or more understandable English. Nevertheless, I do not agree with this decision. It's more beautiful to hear songs in their own language. So what that Ireland and UK are the only ones then who can sing in English so almost whole Europe will understand them. They did not do so well lately anyway. Voting from the beginning is of course ridiculous. And I agree that a professional jury should vote on the songs mainly. Now it's 50-50, but I'd like to reduce the power of the people to perhaps 10%. All Russians in Israel voted for the horrible entry of Russia. And all Turks in Germany for Turkey. That's politics. Harel had a difficult song to sing. It was a song which could show his capacity. He's got a beautiful voice, but went off key. I believe he could have scored higher if that didn't happen (twice). The German song is ok but not brilliant. And her accent is too weird. When I heard it my first thought was: why didn't she sing this in German? She can hardly pronounce the words and I do not see why this song sung in German could not have the same vibe.

lost it's glamor back in the mid 80's, no person watched it people prefered to watch something much more interesting so win or lose doesn't matter, cause the song won't be remembered anyway, if I will grab someone of the stret and ask if he or she can sing last year Eurovision they won't know, but if you ask someone of the street who was Pepino Del Mar they will know the song Bolare. wast of time watching that thing.

Eligibility to participate is not determined by geographic inclusion within the continent of Europe, despite the "Euro" in "Eurovision" — nor does it have any relation to the European Union. Several countries geographically outside the boundaries of Europe have competed: Israel, Cyprus, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan in Western Asia, since 1973, 1981, 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively; and Morocco, in North Africa, in the 1980 competition alone. In addition, Turkey and Russia, which are both transcontinental countries with most of their territory outside of Europe, have competed respectively since 1975 and 1994.

I agree with the writers before me. I would wish the next german GrandPrix song in german.. all countrys should sing in their native language! I guess she sang in english to can have better international sucess..

Winner is Turkish Culture, It is shown Turkey is a leading country in cultural affairs in Europe Eurovision is under heavy influance of Politics as most of Russian Sattelites voted 12 for Russia and German race map also voted 12 for germany Among them Turkey without any political support come 2nd and in fact winner of Eurovision is Turkey As for Israel:Israel got many political votes for support in fact Israel has no place in Eurovision, well it has a place as 14th even with political votes for them otherwise Israel comes last in competition

We can cry "politics" and anti-Israelism, some of which is true, but the real truth is how the songs were chosen. Harel is a super guy but he was given crap to sing! The time has come for the "music cartel" that controls Kochav Nolad (Israel's American Idol) and other music awards to be broken and to shut down the Israel Broadcasting Authority. The people of this country have a right to chose song contest winners and not the self opinionated so called "judges". In similar programs overseas the judges voice their opinions but DO NOT VOTE. They praise, the criticize and ridicule but in the end the people chose and that is the way it must be here if we are to produce good music.

apart from in talkbacks ;)

Vvoting is heavily influenced by regional/cultural patterns, but also partly by demographics, song choice and performance, sex appeal and promotional activity. Germany's song was heavily promoted. I still can't stand Lena's bizarre accent, or the song itself. I liked Turkey's 2nd-place song a lot more. In the final, Israel received: 10 points each from Finland & the Netherlands 8 each from Slovakia & Belarus 6 Slovenia 5 Norway & Azerbaijan 4 Albania & Georgia 3 UK & Ukraine 2 Cyprus 1 Bosnia, Moldova & France 0 from all other countries. Some pretty good songs fared far worse. I think that the choice of musical style had a lot to do with the result. "Pop" songs generally scored well, and Skaat's song just wasn't in that category. Israelis who actually paid attention to the contest voted as follows: Armenia 12 points (you can't vote for your own country) Russia 10 Romania 8 Ukraine 7 Ireland 6 Georgia 5 Denmark 4 France 3 Ukraine 2 Spain 1 It's obvious which demographic in Israel cares about the Eurovision Song Competition. http://www.eurovision.tv/event/scoreboard?event=1493 You can find all of the ESC songs on Youtube.

Mate you've must be kidding me! No political support ? Come on, what about all Turkish immigrants all over EU ? And yes Israel is not part of European Union same as Turkey in case you forgot. But Israel as all non EU participants in this contest member of european broadcasting union. This is why we join this contest and you too . And please check your facts before posting next time . About Israeli performance hmmmm, well it was horrible and it has nothing to do with politics . German girl was funny and cool and song was easy to catch . And we all here voted for Germany . Cheers .

strange but people in the previous postings seem to confuse politcis with nationalism. the contest was funny and germanys lena earnd to win.

Like some others already said. Many points from Holland came from people who sympatise with Israel. No matter the song or artist

Turkey has only one Nobel prize winner and it is for Literature. Israel has many (I can no longer recall exact number) for science economy, math, medicine, peace etc. Many Israeli artists are famous all over the world and perform regularly. I am proud of them as I am also proud of some great Turkish artists such as Bedri Baykam, Idil Biret, Suna Kan and Fazil Say.

The only thing that impressed me was Spain's choreography. The other 23 songs were forgettable, including Israel's. Whose idea was it to have Harel look so angry? Also, someone please explain to me why the German song won.

The song Milim is not just about sadness, it is very much about anger and refusing to believe what has happened. I think Harel's interpreted the message perfectly, and his expressions fit the mood of the song. We in Finland have subtitles for all of the songs, so people know what they are singing about. Maybe this, together with the fact that Finland loves moody, sad & angry music, made us give Israel 10 points this year - points that in my opinion were well deserved.