IBA, the Israeli national broadcaster has confirmed to ESCToday that Israel intends to participate at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, next May.

IBA’s PR office has confirmed to ESCToday that IBA has sent an application to the EBU in order to participate at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest.  Thus the country intends to compete in the contest next year, having submitted a preliminary application. The Israeli broadcaster will make a final decision in due course. The deadline for countries apply for participating at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest has been set to 15 September. Hereafter all applicants have time to withdraw their applications until 10 October.

Israel is the 30th country that confirms its participation (preliminary) at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.

Israel joins Italy, Armenia Romania, United Kingdom, Georgia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Belarus, Latvia, France, Greece,  FYR Macedonia, Austria, Cyprus, Malta, Switzerland, Sweden, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, Germany, Finland, The Netherlands, Lithuania, Belgium, Portugal, Azerbaijan and Estonia  in the list of countries which will join the 2015 Eurovision party in Austria next year.

IBA is studying various options to select the 2015 Israeli entry and representative if they are to participate in the event, one of the options on the table being considered is an internal selection by Radio 88 FM. More details and information regarding the 2015 Israeli Eurovision project is expected to be released in due course.

In 2014 Israel opted for an internal selection in order to selects its Eurovision representative whilst the Israeli entry was selected via public vote. Mei Finegold was selected to represent Israel at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest with her entry Same Heart. Despite an enegetic performance in Copenhagen Mei failed to qualify to the grand final.

Israel debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973 with Ilanit and has won the competion 3 times (1977 with Yizhar Cohen and Alpha Beta, 1979 with Gali Atari and Milk & Honey, and in 1998 with Dana International). Israel has hosted the event twice in 1979 and 1999 in Jerusalem.

The official list of participating countries at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is expected to be released by the EBU  by early 2015.

The 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 19, 21 and 23 May at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria.

Stay tuned to ESCToday.com for the latest information on Israel and the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.