A-Ba-Ni-Bi

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A-Ba-Ni-Bi was the winning song in the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest, performed for Israel by Izhar Cohen and Alphabeta. This was Israel's first Eurovision win. The song is generally translated to English as "I Love You", although this is not strictly accurate.
The song is performed in the "Bet language", a Hebrew equivalent of Pig Latin. Thus, a more faithful English translation might in fact be "I-ay Ove-Lay Ou-yay".

Ehud Manor wrote the lyrics for the song, while Nurit Hirsh wrote the music. These two artists cooprated many times in writing popular music, including the first Israeli entry to the ESC in 1973, Ey Sham.

The song is an up-tempo disco number, heralding a move towards this style of performance in later years. While sometimes derided as a weak entry - particularly given its title - the song is regarded by most fans as one of the better entries in Contest history, often being performed as part of a medley of favourites.

The song was succeeded in 1979 as Contest winner by Gali Atari performing Hallelujah for Israel.

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