"A-Ba-Ni-Bi" (;

bet Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched ...

-language

language game A language game (also called a cant, secret language, ludling, or argot) is a system of manipulating spoken words to render them incomprehensible to an untrained listener. Language games are used primarily by groups attempting to conceal their ...

for the word ''aní'', meaning "I" in Hebrew) is a song recorded by Israeli group

Izhar Cohen Izhar Cohen (, ; born March 13, 1951) is an Israeli singer who won the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest. Biography Izhar Cohen was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and raised in Givatayim, to a family of singers of Yemenite-Jewish descent – Shlomo C ...

and the

Alphabeta "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" (; bet-language language game for the word ''aní'', meaning "I" in Hebrew) is a song recorded by Israeli group Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta, with music composed by Nurit Hirsh and Hebrew lyrics written by Ehud Manor. It in t ...

, with music composed by

Nurit Hirsh Nurit Hirsh (; born August 13, 1942) is an Israeli composer, arranger and conductor who has written over a thousand Hebrew songs. Three of her most famous and widely known songs are '' Ba-Shanah ha-Ba'ah'' (''Next Year'', lyrics by Ehud Manor), ...

and Hebrew lyrics written by

Ehud Manor Ehud Manor (; born Ehud Weiner; July 13, 1941 – April 12, 2005) was an Israeli lyricist, translator, poet and radio and TV personality. He is widely considered to have been Israel's most prolific lyricist of all time, having written or translat ...

. It in the

Eurovision Song Contest 1978 The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Paris, France, following the country's victory at the with the song "L'Oiseau et l'Enfant" by Marie Myriam. Organised by the European Broadcas ...

held in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, winning the contest.

Background

Conception

"A-Ba-Ni-Bi" was composed by

with lyrics by

, a duo who had collaborated frequently in writing Israeli Eurovision entries, including the country's debut "

Ey Sham "Ey Sham" (Hebrew: , lit. "Somewhere") is a song by Israeli singer Ilanit, with lyrics by Ehud Manor and music composed by Nurit Hirsh. The song was Israel's debut entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, competing in the 1973 edition, where it ...

". It is an up-tempo

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

number, heralding a move towards this style of performance in later years. In addition to the version fully in Hebrew,

and the

recorded a version with English and Hebrew lyrics. The Alphabeta was a group of singers composed by two men, Reuven Erez and Itzhak Okev, and three women, Lisa Gold-Rubin, Nehama Shutan, and Esther Tzuberi. The song deals with the way in which children relate to love. Cohen sings that, growing up, "we loved secretly/Who were we nice to?—Just uncles and aunts" and that love was conducted secretly and "We whispered only in the 'bet language'". He compares this to adulthood, where he realises that "Love is a beautiful word" and that humanity should "speak in a language of love", instead of the language of secrecy. For this reason, the song uses the Bet language—a children's

where each syllable of the word is repeated with a

preceding the vowel. Thus, the Hebrew ''a-ni o-hev o-tach'' (, "I love you") becomes ''a-ba-ni-bi o-bo-he-be-v o-bo-ta-ba-ch''. Mistakenly, the song title was captioned on screen at the contest as being "Ah-Bah-Nee-Bee" and was further confused in the UK singles market when listed on the official singles chart compiled by Music Week as "A-Bi-Ni-Bi". Musically, the song is somewhat unusual among Contest entries for ending almost immediately after the key change—most entries have either a bridge or a repetition of the chorus after this point.

Eurovision

On 11 February 1978, "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" performed by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta competed in the that the

Israeli Broadcasting Authority The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA; ) was Israel's public broadcaster from 1948 to 2017, succeeded by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation. History The Israel Broadcasting Authority was an outgrowth of the radio station ''Kol Yisr ...

(IBA) organized to select its song and performer for the of the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

. The song won the competition so it became the –and Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta the performers– for Eurovision. On 22 April 1978, the Eurovision Song Contest was held at the in

hosted by (TF1) and broadcast live throughout the continent. Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta performed "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" eighteenth on the evening, following 's " Parlez-vous français?" by

Baccara Baccara was a Spanish female vocal duo formed in 1977 by Spanish artists Mayte Mateos (born 7 February 1951) and María Mendiola (4 April 1952 – 11 September 2021). The duo rapidly achieved international success with their debut single " Yes ...

and preceding 's " Mrs. Caroline Robinson" by Springtime. Nurit Hirsh conducted the event's live orchestra in the performance of the Israeli entry. At the close of voting, the song had received 157 points, placing first in a field of twenty, and winning the contest. The song received points from every other voting country except , including six sets of maximum 12 points. This was Israel's first Eurovision win, and it was succeeded in as contest winner and as Israeli entry by "

Hallelujah ''Hallelujah'' (; , Modern ) is an interjection from the Hebrew language, used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Tanakh (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, and four times in the Christ ...

" by

Milk and Honey Milk and Honey may refer to: Music * The Milk and Honey Band, an English band * Milk and Honey (album), ''Milk and Honey'' (album), a 1984 album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono * Milk & Honey (Crowder album), ''Milk & Honey'' (Crowder album), 2021 * M ...

. Israel thus became the third country, after ( and ) and Luxembourg ( and ), to win the contest in two successive years. It was reported that several broadcasters of the non-participating Arab countries who were broadcasting the contest, cut abruptly the broadcast when it was clear Israel was going to win. Jordanian television cut the broadcast and showed pictures of flowers.

Aftermath

Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta performed their song in the Eurovision twenty-fifth anniversary show '' Songs of Europe'' held on 22 August 1981 in

Mysen Mysen is the administrative center of the municipalities of Norway, municipality of Eidsberg in the counties of Norway, county of Østfold in Norway. The town is named after the old farm of Mysen (Old Norse, Norse ''Mysin'', from ''*Mosvin''), si ...

. Izhar Cohen returned to Eurovision in the held in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

with " Olé, Olé", finishing fifth in a field of nineteen. The song was performed as part of a

medley Medley or Medleys may refer to: Sports *Medley swimming, races requiring multiple swimming styles * Medley relay races at track meets Music *Medley (music), multiple pieces strung together People *Medley (surname), list of people with this nam ...

of favorites in the opening number of the Eurovision fiftieth anniversary competition '' Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest'', held on 22 October 2005 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, and in the opening number of the semi-final of the , held on 18 May 2006 in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Legacy

"A-Ba-Ni-Bi" was covered by Grup Vitamin, Turkish parody music group as "Acaba bu ne baba be?" ("I wonder what is this dad, hey?" in Turkish) in ''Aşkın gözyaşları'' ("Tears of Love"), which was their 1994 album. A Chinese version performed by Shiao Lih-ju, titled "迎著風的女孩" ("The Girl Facing the Wind" in Chinese), was released in 1980. A cover by

Harlem Yu Harlem Yu (; born 28 July 1961) is a Taiwanese singer-songwriter, television host and businessman. He has been hosting television shows in Taiwan since 1994 and in China since 2011, and served as a coach for three seasons of '' The Voice of Chi ...

of the Chinese version was released in 2009. A parody of the song, with identical Hebrew lyrics in the first two lines and two lines in Mandarin Chinese, was used as the opening song of Hong Kong broadcaster

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB; zh, t=電視廣播有限公司) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong. The company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Canton ...

's 2009 game show Boom Boom Ba. The song was performed in 2018, on a one-stringed guitar by Israeli singer Netta Barzilai who won the

Eurovision Song Contest 2018 The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 was the 63rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Lisbon, Portugal, following the country's victory at the with the song "" by Salvador Sobral. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (E ...

. The song was covered by: *

Connie Francis Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero ( ; born December 12, 1937), known as Connie Francis, is a retired American Pop music, pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. She is estimated to have sold more th ...

* Beti Jurković in Croatian, as "Ja pa te pe vo po lim pi" (from , also "I love you") * Frederik in Finnish, as "Rakkauden aika." * El Chaval de la Peca (Marc Parrot) in Spanish. It was also parodied as "I wanna be a polar bear" (intentionally misheard lyrics). A Thai rendition of the song, performed by Thai singer Hongtong Daoudon,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI8RxOuIx1o was featured on the third season of

The White Lotus ''The White Lotus'' is an American Black comedy, black comedy drama Anthology series, anthology television series created by Mike White (filmmaker), Mike White for HBO that premiered on July 11, 2021. The series follows the exploits of the gues ...

Notes

References

External links

* {{authority control Eurovision songs of 1978 Eurovision songs of Israel Songs in Hebrew 1978 songs Songs with music by Nurit Hirsh Eurovision Song Contest-winning songs Polydor Records singles