PingPong

Formation

Ping Pong was an Israeli pop group formed in 1999 with a playful vision. Roy “Chicky” Arad and Guy Asif, two friends and journalists from Tel Aviv, started the band with an ABBA-like concept of two male and two female members. They recruited singer Ahal Eden (Arad’s flatmate) and Yifat Giladi (Arad’s ex-girlfriend) to complete the quartet. The group spent years crafting upbeat techno-pop songs for a debut album titled Between Moral and Fashion (2000). Their music was quirky and satirical, blending pop melodies with tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Ping Pong initially had no major label backing; they treated the project with humor and creativity, aiming to shake up the Israeli pop scene.

Road to Eurovision 2000

In early 2000, the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) internally selected Ping Pong to represent Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm. The band’s song “Sameach” (Hebrew for “Happy”) was chosen from 83 submissions by a special jury. Roy Arad and Guy Asif wrote “Sameach,” and even they admitted the entry began as a light-hearted joke. The selection stirred debate in Israel. A well-known composer slammed “Sameach” as “a national disgrace,” while others on the committee defended it as a fun, silly song not meant to be taken seriously. Despite the controversy, “Sameach” briefly topped Israel’s charts before Eurovision. Ping Pong’s members were culture writers by day and pop rebels by night, so their Eurovision bid came with a sense of mischief and irony.

“Sameach” – Song and Performance

“Sameach” was a dance-pop track with provocative undertones. Its lyrics tell of an Israeli kibbutz girl who has a passionate affair with a man from Damascus. The song mentions wars and even a cucumber as a suggestive prop, hinting at sexual innuendo. For Eurovision, renowned director Eytan Fox created a playful music video featuring two male band members kissing and the women making cheeky gestures with cucumbers. This campy imagery upset conservative viewers in Israel even before the contest. Ping Pong’s live performance on May 13, 2000, further amplified the spectacle. They opened the Eurovision final (performing first) with high energy.

In the song’s final moments, the group waved small Israeli and Syrian flags on stage as a call for peace. Arad and Asif even exchanged a quick celebratory kiss during the act. According to Fox, the flag-waving symbolized a new Israeli youth longing for normalcy and peace with its neighbors. The band wanted to have fun and make a statement of love over conflict. However, that bold statement would ignite a firestorm back home.

Flag Controversy and Backlash

Ping Pong’s Syrian flag gesture triggered one of Eurovision’s biggest Israeli controversies. The IBA had explicitly warned the band not to politicize the performance, especially since the rehearsal coincided with Israel’s Independence Day. When Ping Pong refused to drop the flags, the IBA publicly disowned its own entry. The IBA chairman announced that the group would compete “not on behalf of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority or the Israeli people” but only represent themselves. He even forced Ping Pong to fund their trip to Sweden without state support as punishment.

The live flag-waving in Stockholm infuriated many in Israel. Hundreds of viewers called the national broadcaster to complain, and religious politicians denounced the band’s act as shameful. The Knesset’s Education Committee convened a special session and blasted Ping Pong as “a disgrace and a shame to the State of Israel”. They labeled the group “a band of crooks who misled us” and vowed that future Israeli Eurovision entrants would be chosen by the public, not behind closed doors. Israeli media also piled on: after the contest, newspapers condemned Ping Pong’s poor showing as an embarrassment. Amid the uproar, Roy Arad remained unapologetic. He said waving the Syrian flag onstage was the proudest moment of his life, insisting the band only wanted to spread a peace message through pop music.

Eurovision Results and Aftermath

Israel’s Eurovision 2000 gamble ended in disappointment. “Sameach” received only 7 points and finished 22nd out of 24 entries. The song’s upbeat tune and cheeky performance did not win over the international juries. Back in Israel, the result was seen as a national flop, deepening the criticism against the band. The new millennium began a slump for Israel at Eurovision, and Ping Pong’s act became a cautionary tale in the country’s Eurovision history. Under intense public pressure and lacking support, the group’s members went their separate ways shortly after the contest.

Ping Pong had released their album Between Moral and Fashion in 2000, but it sold poorly and failed to produce any hits. With their brief, tumultuous run over, the band quietly disbanded. In 2006, filmmaker Alon Weinstock released a documentary Sipur Sameach (“Happy Story”) that followed Ping Pong’s ill-fated Eurovision journey. The film captured the chaotic mix of satire and scandal that defined the group’s trip to Stockholm, preserving Ping Pong’s story as a quirky footnote in Israeli pop culture.

Life After Ping Pong

Each member of Ping Pong moved on to new endeavors after the split. Roy “Chicky” Arad reinvented himself as a prominent poet, author, and activist in Israel. He published acclaimed books (his Israeli Dream was named among the best Israeli books of the century) and became known for his avant-garde poetry and political engagement. Arad also continued making music on his own terms and wrote for major publications as a journalist and satirist.

Guy Asif returned to his career in journalism and media. He had been deputy editor of Ma’ariv’s culture section and an editor for an IBA culture program, and he remained active in Israeli cultural journalism after Ping Pong.

In contrast, Ahal Eden and Yifat Giladi did not pursue public musical careers beyond their Eurovision adventure. Neither Eden nor Giladi originally planned to become pop stars. They joined Ping Pong as friends rather than aspiring singers. After 2000, both women stepped out of the spotlight and focused on private life and other professional interests outside the music industry. Despite its short life, Ping Pong remains a memorable chapter in Eurovision history. The band’s story illustrates how one outrageous performance in 2000 turned a little-known Tel Aviv pop group into an enduring cultural anecdote; one where a joke entry ended up making a serious point.