“I didn’t plan to go to Eurovision and I didn’t plan on winning,” the 25-year-old says. “I was a struggling musician, hoping for a couple of gigs.”
Things changed after she won the fifth season of Hakochav Haba competition, whose winner gets to represent Israel at Eurovision.
She had been tipped as a favourite – with her barnstorming ‘Toy’ capturing people’s hearts and minds – but given the high-profile Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, there was some scepticism that she would be able to win. But in the end, it wasn’t even close. Netta stormed home, almost 100 points clear of the second-place competitor, Cyprus.
“When I won I realised I can do something really good for a lot of people, for self-esteem, for empowerment,” she said.
“It’s been an amazing ride, and I’m grateful for everything happening to me.”
She is very much aware of what she represents.
“My presence and my voice on stage, it sends a clear message that you can do whatever you want in your life, break barriers, stigmas –be the new standard,” she says.
“I was told all my life to sing like Aretha Franklin, or Adele, cover myself with black clothing and show more soul, sing bigger,” she says, adding that this is how people who are “bigger singers” are expected to be.
“I followed all the rules until I was 18, 19, and [then] I realised ‘no, I want to do what I want to do – learn electronic music.
“I went into electronic music, into a classroom at Rimon School. 30 boys and 1 girl; me. Everybody really disrespected me. I was very slow in computers. But I got into looping and sat and worked my ass off over that and it really paid off.”
She explains that a looper “is a mobile recording device which allows me to loop my voice several times until a playback is formed. It allows me to put out all the craziest vocal ideas in my head.
“I wanted to do pop music, and I wanted to dance. I wanted all this because that was me. This is my inner performer, that is what it wants, this is what my heart wants. And I decided to follow it, although people, society – told me I couldn’t.”
That inner performer is present in Netta’s Eurovision-winning anthem, which she is in Britain to promote. The song, which went to number one on Spotify’s Viral 50 global chart and has received over 70 million YouTube views to date, just secured a global distribution deal.
“I begged [Doron Medalie, one of the song’s writers] to let me include stuff that I do,” she says.
“He let me enter the chicken clucking and ‘Ani Lo Booba’, which is ‘I am not a doll’ in Hebrew, and the opening, the looping, a-capella opening. I am very proud of it.”
But it’s not just “Toy” on the agenda.
“I’m working on new stuff,” she reveals, which will be released “in a few months.”
The one thing which Netta wants to keep her distance from, however, is politics.
A day after the Eurovision win, mass protests on the Gaza border saw scores of Palestinians – most later identified as members of Hamas – shot while trying to force entry into Israel. People wondered whether Israel would have won if Eurovision had been held a week later.
“I have no way to control it,” Netta says. “I can’t be pissed off or distracted by things that are out of my hands.”
“I think the winning has made so many hearts come closer, and if I speak politically about whatever opinion that I have, it will ruin it, it will ruin the winning for someone.
“It [the winning] is everybody’s. Everybody needs to be happy about it, everybody deserves to be happy about it. So I try for myself and for everybody else to keep myself out of it. And this is very right and true because I am a musician. It’s not my job.”
She repeats that sentiment in her response to the question of Jerusalem. Although Eurovision was held in the Israeli capital in 1979 and 1999, there have been questions over whether the competition should be held there again.
“Jerusalem is a 30 minute drive from Tel Aviv,” Netta says.
“I don’t think it will be a big difference wherever it will be held. It doesn’t say anything if Eurovision will be held in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv – anything. It has no significance.
“Israel is amazing – it deserves all the tourists. I think people should come and enjoy our amazing country. I’ve lived in it for 25 years and I still think it’s the best place in the entire world.”
She is, however, unequivocal in her message to would-be Israel boycotters.
“Boycotting, hate and revenge won’t lead to anything. It leads nowhere. Talking, speaking and communicating leads somewhere. Boycotting doesn’t help. That’s it.”
