Israeli broadcaster (IBA) will choose it's entrant to the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest on Thursday. The Israeli web portal Ynet.co.il posted a list of optional candidates and a short interview with Israel's head of delegation.

According to Ynet, the candidates from which the 2003 Israeli entrant will be chosen on Thursday are Eyal Golan, Zehava Ben, Eyal Shahar, group Tipex and the duo Jevgeny Schapovalov and Shlomit Aharon (Israel 1981). Artists and journalists will form the jury. Among the members is Yoav Ginay, a radio and TV presenter in the IBA, who also wrote the 1998 Eurovision winner Diva and last year's entry Light a Candle.

Yitzhak Sonnenschein, who lead the Israeli delegation in 2002 and will head the entry again in Riga, elaborated to Ynet.co.il about the IBA's demands: “The jury must be convinced that the entrant will be able to represent us with the utmost vocal, artistic and experienced way. An artist might be very talented but lacks stage experience” says Sonnenschein.” The performance on a Eurovision stage can be very emotionaly intensive, and we had bad results due to artists who couldn't take it. I don't wish to mention names but you can figure it out yourselves”.

Sonnenschein adds that another critical demand is that the entrant will have a firm financial backing. “This condition is customary in other countries where the broadcaster doesn't support additional delegates. We wish to prevent a bad performance caused by financial problems” he says.