Eurovision winner Netta Barzilai drops new single: ‘Bassa Sababa’
The reportedly most expensive Israeli music video ever made features Netta dressed as a pink rhino and is a celebration of her life since winning the annual song contest last May
She was crowned the Eurovision queen with her quirky clucking noises and flapping chicken dance moves and now Netta Barzilai is hoping to take the music charts by storm with her new single – dressed as a pink rhino.
Bassa Sababa, Arabic for “Bummer, That’s Awesome,” is a celebration of her life since winning Eurovision.
Since the song was released on Friday, the accompanying video has garnered almost 3 million views on YouTube.
Barzilai, 26, dons a pink rhino outfit for her entertaining video and is seen charging after a man who has dumped her just as they are about to be married (sans huppah).
She calls on him to “Stop!/ Call your mama/ Run/ Tell her I’m a Rhino/ My killer girls are coming/ If you won’t hide you’re done.”
And “Stop!/ Hold the trigger/ Watch/ My horn is bigger/ I win/ I love my thicker figure/ I grew a thicker skin.”
She told The Associated Press that the song is a more “raw, real” version of female empowerment than her Eurovision winner, “Toy.”
The video features plenty of pink, from a fully pimped-out car, to gigantic pink bubbles and goo, and hooded students. There are also 50 pink-clad dancers.
The video was filmed in more than a dozen locations in Kiev, the Ukraine capital, and came in at a cost of some $275,000 — reportedly the most expensive Israeli music video ever produced.
“After this experience, the people made me into some kind of idol for empowerment, self-acceptance and love,” Barzilai told AP. “But what they don’t know is that’s actually what empowered me.”
She wrote the song with Stav Beger, one-half of the songwriting team for her winning Eurovision entry, Toy, and Avshalom Ariel.
Barzilai uses her famous looper alongside an African beat and techno-electronic music.
In a statement, Barzilai said: “I learned this year from my fans that I’m stronger than I think I am. The light and the joy within me and the people around me can conquer all the darkness that comes from inside and out.
“A rhinoceros is an animal with a very thick skin, that protects itself and its herd by attacking, not feeling.”
Barzilai’s Eurovision victory means the 2019 contest will be held in Tel Aviv, Israel, on 18 May.
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