Eurovision 2017 Song Contest Winner Is Portugal, Salvador Sobral Help Snag Country’s First-Ever Win; Israel To Drop Out Of Competition in 2018 After 44 Years Of Participation

Portugal landed its first-ever win at Eurovision 2017, the wildly popular annual competition for singers representing nations in the European Broadcasting Union. CNN reports that the win was courtesy of Salvador Sobral, who sang the winning song "Amar Pelos Dois" ("For The Both Of Us"), which was written by his very own sister, Luisa.

The win marked Portugal’s first in the competition since joining 44 years ago. Reuters said Sobral was a favorite, along with the representatives of Italy and Bulgaria into the Eurovision final, which was held at Kiev, Ukraine. He also led in the voting throughout the evening, finishing ahead of the singers from Bulgaria and Moldova. Following his win in the competition, Sobral sang the song again, this time with his sister.

"Music is not fireworks, music is feeling. Let's put emotion back into music," he said after winning.

The night leading to Sobral’s win, Eurovision was marred with a shocking announcement. Metro noted that during the voting, Israel’s jury spokesperson said the country would be bowing out of the competition moving forward.

Benny Royston for the news site explained in a writeup, “Israel’s public broadcaster, IBA, closes this week due to restructuring. A new broadcaster called Kan (also the title of Israel’s 1991 Eurovision Song Contest entry) will replace the channel. It had been reported that Kan would be ineligible to join the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) because it would not be broadcasting news. Broadcasters have to be a member of the EBU in order to broadcast syndicated news and participate in EBU shows which include the Eurovision Song Contest.”