Auditions are now over in Israel’s Eurovision 2018 national selection, The Next Star; now it’s time to move on to the shortlisting phase of the country’s competition!

In tonight’s episode of The Next Star, the 4-member jury panel will sit down and determine which artists will advance to the Live Show stage of the Israeli national selection for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.

How to watch

The Next Star 2018 is going to air this evening at 20:00 CET (21:00 local time) on the following channels:

• Keshet 12
• Live webcast via mako.co.il

The show

Back in October, Israel’s search for their next Eurovision artists began with the Audition stage of their national selection, The Next Star.

In total, 70 artists have qualified to tonight’s next stage of the competition, in which the jury panel – made up of Static & Ben-El Tavori, Keren Peles, Harel Skaat and Assaf Amdursky – are set to shortlist 20 acts to compete in the Live Show phase of The Next Star.

Whilst 71 acts originally proceeded to this phase of the selection, one artist has since confirmed their withdrawal from the competition: Liat Banay. Banay will therefore not advance in the competition.

The 20 competitors will be confirmed this evening, whilst the next episode of The Next Star is set to take place on Sunday.

From the past shows, which artists stand out to you so far? Who would you like to see on the Eurovision stage in Lisbon?