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WATCH: Eurovision Winner Netta on Israel, Feminism, and Body Image

The singer praises ‘a feminism that comes and takes what it deserves, with a smile and with a hug’

by
Liel Leibovitz
July 26, 2018
JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images
Netta Barzilai performs on April 10, 2018 at Kikkar Rabin in Tel Aviv.JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images
JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images
Netta Barzilai performs on April 10, 2018 at Kikkar Rabin in Tel Aviv.JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images

More often than not, winners of the Eurovision song contest step off the stage and become nothing more than the answers to trivia questions some years down the line. Not Netta: In the months since her triumph, she’s grown so popular in Europe that even we Americans, traditionally a haughty bunch when it comes to other nations’ music, are now ready to listen. This week, Netta visited the United States, kicking off her American tour by performing on the Today show:

Later in the week, she sat down to talk to the Associated Press about Israel, feminism, and her life. If you’re familiar with Netta, you probably know what to expect. If not, you’re likely to fall in love not only with her striking talent but also her candor and her warmth, rare in an age where so much artistic persona is an artifice.

“We are amazing people,” she said about her fellow Israelis. “We are very warm and vibrant.” And when asked about feminism, she decried those who prefer to sit and complain and expect others to come up with solutions to their grievances. Instead, Netta said, she believed in “a feminism that comes and takes what it deserves, with a smile and with a hug.” Amen to that. And here she is, in all her glory:

Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet Magazine and a host of its weekly culture podcast Unorthodox and daily Talmud podcast Take One. He is the editor of Zionism: The Tablet Guide.