Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 1987

The 1987 edition of the Kdam Eurovision was the largest edition of the contest up to that point. Sixteen songs were in contention to represent Israel in Belgium, and rather than only use the votes of regional jury panels as was standard procedure, five of them were joined by three televoting regions and a vote of the audience watching the show in the auditorium. Said auditorium was the Cinerama in Tel Aviv, which marked the first time that the Israeli selection took place outside of Jerusalem. The final was held on 1 April 1987,[1] with co-hosts Yardena Arazi (a former Eurovision co-host and contestant in her own right, whom the IBA would select as their international representative again the following year) and presenter Yoram Arbel. For the first time since the 1979 heats, an orchestra was present, with each composition's respective arranger leading the orchestra. However, according to Kobi Oshrat (the conductor and arranger behind several entries that year, including the eventual winner),[2] all the music had been pre-recorded, and the musicians in the pit were miming, as the IBA did not have the budget for effective sound quality.

Among the competitors was Izhar Cohen, who had previously scored Israel's first Eurovision victory with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" in 1978 and later earned them a fifth-place finish in 1985 with "Ole, Ole." He was joined here by his sister, fellow singer Vardina Cohen. Also making an early appearance were Moshe and Orna Datz, better known as Duo Datz, who would go on to win the 1991 Israeli heats and finish third in Rome with the song "Kan." Also competing, as he had in several prior selections, was Svika Pick, who would later write "Diva" with Yoav Ginai and help Dana International secure Israel's third Eurovision win eleven years later.

The voting was close, with few points separating the top four songs. However, to great surprise, it was Datner and Kushnir's novelty song "Shir Habatlanim," an ode to the virtues of an easygoing life sung by the duo in Blues Brothers-inspired outfits, that took the lead by thirteen points over frequent national finalist Ilana Avital and earned the right to fly the Israeli flag in Brussels. As one of many apocryphal stories regarding Israel's Eurovision history goes, the Minister of Culture (whose name has never been specified) threatened to resign if the duo remained the Israeli representatives. They did, and he did not.[3]