Tonight’s round in The Next Star is now over, with yet another 9 artists advancing in the Israeli national selection for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. One act left the competition in this evening’s show.

Tonight saw the continuation of the duel stage of The Next Star, in which all 10 previous qualifiers performed once again in the hope of advancing in the contest.

Whilst the first duel of the night saw 2 duets battling against each other, the remaining acts performed individually, hoping to gain the votes of both the audience and the 4-member jury panel.

Round one of voting

All 10 artists competed in the first round of tonight’s show, with half of the artists managing to proceed to the next stage directly.

• Chen Aharoni & Jonathan Margi (92%) vs Adva Omer & Eden Meiri (66%)
• José Steinberg (53%) vs Riki Ben Ari (64%)
• Ravit Batashvili (74%) vs Shay & Gilad (36%)
• Howie Danao (69%) vs Netta Barzilai (76%)

The non-qualifiers from the first round were then assessed by the judging panel, in which the jury selected a total of 3 artists to advance in the competition.

Adva Omer was first to be saved, followed in quick succession by Eden Meiri and Howie Danao.

It was then between José Steinberg and Shay & Gilad, in which the audience and jury had to determine which of the 2 acts would receive the final place in the next stage.

One artist eliminated after final round

In the final duel of the evening, José Steinberg won the battle by a landslide, therefore gaining the last place in tonight show.

• Shay & Gilad (28%) vs José Steinberg (82%)

Tonight we say goodbye to singing duo Shay & Gilad, whose journey in the competition concluded tonight.

The Next Star continues on Sunday with the next stage of the national selection, airing on Keshet 12 at the usual time of 20:00 CET (21:00 local time).