Eden Alene, an Israeli singer of Ethiopian descent, represented Israel in the 2021 Eurovision Song contest, where she reached the finals and broke the record for highest note sung at the competition. She showed great pride in representing Israel and her Ethiopian-Israeli community in the international song competition.

Eden Alene was born in Jerusalem on May 7, 2000, to Ethiopian Jewish migrants to Israel. Her parents divorced when she was 2 and she was raised primarily by her mother. Alene attended religious Jewish elementary and middle schools, switching in high school to the secular Hebrew University Secondary School, where she majored in theater. She enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces in October 2018, serving in the military band of the education and youth corps. She was honorably discharged in October of 2020. 

In January 2018, Alene competed in and won The X Factor Israel. In April 2018, she performed the opening song at the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, and she released her first single “Better” later that year. In 2019, she won the Israeli reality television show HaKochav HaBa,  qualifying her to perform in the 2020 Eurovision competition; had the 2020 contest not been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, hers would have been the third black Israeli act to represent Israel in the competition. The song “Feker Libi,” which contains Hebrew, English, Arabic, and Amharic, was chosen for Alene by a committee of six executives from radio and television, who are in charge of song selection. Alene was subsequently chosen to represent Israel in the 2021 Eurovision song contest, although she was granted a different song, “Set Me Free,” by the same committee which generated much less excitement from the public. Alene reached the final round and broke the world record for highest note sung at Eurovision, hitting a B6 whistle note.  She finished with a score of 93 and came in seventeenth out of 26 contestants.  

After the 2021 contest, Alene had to face the difficult reality of the Israeli musical scene. Her career did not take off in the way she was expecting, partially due to a lack of excitement from the public, and she eventually receded from the public eye. However, her accomplishments in representing Israel’s Ethiopian community are worth celebrating. As Alene’s mother, Zehava, said in an interview, “Eden represents pride for all Ethiopians. Everyone is behind her, supporting her, and loving her.” 

Sources 

Burak, Emily. “18 Things to Know About Ethiopian Israeli Singer Eden Alene.” Hey Alma, February 12, 2020. https://www.heyalma.com/18-things-to-know-about-ethiopian-israeli-singer-eden-alene/  

“Eden Alene.” Eurovision song contest. https://eurovision.tv/participant/eden-alene-2021. Accessed November 16, 2022.