| abstract | - A-Ba-Ni-Bi was the Israeli entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 written by Ehud Manor and Nurit Hirsh, and performed by Izhar Cohen & Alpha Beta. It is an upbeat disco-style song that talks about how children relate to love - the title itself is sung in the Bet language, a children's language game where each syllable of the word is repeated with a bet replacing the consonant. It is also one of the few songs that ends directly after a key change. It is often a subject of mistaken lyrics among Eurovision fans, many believe that the line "a-ba-ni-bi o-bo-he-be-v" sounds like "I want to be a polar bear". In the contest, it was performed 18th on the night, following Luxembourg and preceding Austria. At the close of voting, it received 157 points and was declared the winner, giving Israel its first victory. Nurit Hirsh also made history by becoming the first (and only) female conductor to win the contest.
|
