When a baby giraffe was born at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo on the very same night that an Israeli singer won the Eurovision song contest, keepers knew immediately what to call her: “Toy,” after the winning song by Netta Barzilai.
Gilad Moshe, head of the herbivores section at the zoo, stated that choosing a name for new animals can often take some time, as many things are taken into consideration. However, in the case of Toy, it was clear right away what her name would be, he told the Hebrew-language Ynet news site.
“She was born on the day of the final and when we arrived at the zoo on Sunday, it was already clear to everybody that must be her name,” he said.
Toy, born overnight May 12, now stands 1.60 meters tall and weighs around 100 kilograms. She is being kept out of sight with her mother inside the zoo’s giraffe house for the time being.
Within a few weeks she will be released to join the rest of the zoo’s small herd in the Africa enclosure, where she can meander with zebras, rhinos, and a wallowing hippo.
Israel’s Netta Barzilai celebrates after winning the Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal, May 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
At the Eurovision, Barzilai clucked and bucked her way through “Toy,” a catchy ditty that had been the bookmakers’ favorite to win for weeks before the international contest in Portugal.
Israel’s victory, its first since 1998, means it wins the right to host next year’s finals, which, in the intervening decades, have transformed into a massive extravaganza with two rounds, tens of thousands of fans, and millions more tuning in around the world.