Fancy a (he)brew?

You wait for something exciting to happen and then you get two announcements in two days! Today, Israel announced their artist for Helsinki and it turns out that it's the rather oddly named band, Teapacks.

Teapacks are a well-known band in their home country and were picked by a panel of bigwigs locked away in a room in Tel Aviv. The head of the Israeli deligation is Yoav Ginai, a bald man who wrote Diva, Israel's 1998 winner, and he said that Teapacks are "original" and "unique". They blend together traditional and western music and, after hearing one of their songs, it's quite a nice mix.

It's an interesting move for Israel who have not had bags of luck this decade so far. Ping Pong, the last group that entered for Israel, only picked up 7 points in 2000. After a series of average results, and not qualifying from the semi-final 2004, they managed to turn it all around in 2005 with Shiri Maimon's excellent performance of the equally excellent Hasheket Shenish'ar, surely one of the greatest ballads to ever grace the Eurovision stage. It finished 4th. Last year, they entered a the gospel ballad Ze Hazman. It was poor. It scored 4 points. And, alas, the semi-final awaits them once again.

So can the 'unique' sounds of Teapacks do it for them? We will have to wait and see. Let's just hope Shiri Maimon can give them some (PG) Tips about how to do well (chuckles).