This video present’s Israel’s winning song in the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest in Paris, “A-Ba-Ni-Bi” by Izhar Cohen and Alphabeta. The up-tempo disco song explores the way in which humans relate to love, expressing it discreetly and selectively as children and then learning that love should be expressed confidentially and to all of humanity as adults. The cryptic chorus is “I love you” in the made-up “Bet language,” the Hebrew equivalent of Pig Latin, where each syllable is repeated with the letter “bet” replacing the consonant. After the win, Jerusalem hosted the contest in the following year, marking the first time that it would take place outside of Europe. Israel’s contestant, Gali Atari & Milk and Honey, won the contest the following year with their song “Hallelujah,” making Israel the third country to win twice in a row. The English lyrics are provided below. To see the Hebrew lyrics, click here.
A-ba-ni-bi
Chorus (x3)
A-ba-ni-bi o-bo-he-bev (I love)
A-ba-ni-bi o-bo-he-bev o-bo-ta-bach (I love you)
When we were children
We would love in secret
Who were we nice to?
Only to uncles and aunts
And the poor girls suffered
Those sweethearts, they’d just get beaten up
And what we really felt
We whispered only in the Bet language
Chorus (x2)
Love is a beautiful word
It’s a wondrous prayer, it’s a language
Love is good to me
It will always overcome
And we shall speak in a language of love
Chorus (x2)
I dream and I wake up to three words
And what is the world? – Three words
And that is how I feel now
Just like back then, in the Bet language
Chorus (x5)