Country Israel As Liora Composer(s) Moshe Datz | Artist(s) Liora Fadlon Language Hebrew Lyricist(s) Hamutal Ben-Ze'ev | |
"Amen" (Hebrew script: אמן) was the Israeli entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995, performed in Hebrew by Liora.
The song is a prayer to God for protection, with the title being derived from the word Amen, which is repeated frequently in the prayer.
The song was performed 21st on the night (following Slovenia's Darja Švajger with "Prisluhni mi" and preceding Malta's Mike Spiteri with "Keep Me In Mind"). At the close of voting, it had received 81 points, placing 8th in a field of 23. In the pre-selection show in Israel Liora performed the song with candles on the stage. The Irish production, however, declined the Israeli candles staging due to "safety problems".
Due to the rapidly expanding size of the Contest, entry to the 1996 Contest was determined through an internal preselection in which judges listened to recordings of the proposed entries. Israel did not progress through this stage. Entry to the 1997 Contest was restricted to those countries with the best average scores over the previous five years, a group which did not include Israel. The country did, however, participate as a "passive participant", by screening the Contest live. This earned Israel the right to re-enter the Contest in 1998. Hence, the song was succeeded as Israeli representative at the 1998 Contest by Dana International with "Diva".