From 70 to 20: the judging panel members from The Next Star have shortlisted the 20 acts set to compete in the third stage of Israel’s national selection for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.

The Next Star proceeded with the second round of its Eurovision national selection earlier this week, with the second half concluding this evening, in which it was down to the jury panel to determine which 20 acts from the 70 qualifiers should advance in the competition.

With a huge 50 acts leaving the selection, we now know which 20 artists will continue in the competition, hoping to represent Israel at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.

Here are the 20 qualifiers

Tonight’s remaining qualifiers were determined by the 4-member jury panel, consisting of members Static & Ben-El Tavori, Keren Peles, Harel Skaat and Assaf Amdursky.

• Eden Meiri
• The Yamanz
• Sarit Hativa
• Jaki Gaforov
• Ofir Harush 
• The Choice 
• Gal Yaakoni
• Axum
• Shir Gadasi
• Tal Mizrahi
• Howie Danao
• Ravit Batashvili
• Rinat Bar

As always, you can catch up on the performances from The Next Star via the official national selection website.

The 13 qualifiers from tonight’s show join Thursday’s first 7 successful artists:

• Riki Ben Ari
• Jonathan Margi
• Adva Omer
• Neta Barzilai
• Jose Steinberg
• Chen Aharoni
• Shir Baruch

The next stage of The Next Star continues on Wednesday, in which the third stage of the national selection will begin as Israel’s Eurovision search well and truly kicks off.

Which of the 20 advancing artists is your favourite so far? Who are you excited to see in the next stage of the competition?