Lucy Ayoub

Lucy Ayoub (Arabic: لوسي ايوب‎, Hebrew: לוסי איוב‎; born 21 June 1992) is an Israeli television presenter, poet and radio host of the IPBC (Kan). Ayoub co-hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 alongside Assi Azar, Bar Refaeli and Erez Tal.[1]

Lucy Ayoub
Ayoub in 2018
Born
Lucy Ayoub

(1992-06-21) June 21, 1992
Hadar HaCarmel, Haifa, Israel
NationalityIsraeli
Alma materTel Aviv University
OccupationTelevision presenter, radio presenter
Years active2016–present
EmployerIsraeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (Kan)
Partner(s)Etay Bar

Early life

Ayoub was born in Haifa, Israel. She is the daughter of an Arab-Christian father, and an Ashkenazi Jewish mother who converted to Christianity upon their marriage. Ayoub has one brother and three sisters.[2][3] Her paternal grandmother was the daughter of Palestinian refugees who fled to Lebanon during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, leaving her in a convent in Israel, and later was adopted by a prosperous Arab-Christian woman named Lucy Khayat.[2] Her maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors: her maternal grandfather had been in a Nazi concentration camp, while her maternal grandmother from Romania survived among partisans as a child.[2] Ayoub celebrates both the Christian and Jewish holidays with different parts of her family, while personally being an atheist, saying "I’m an atheist and it means nothing to me that I was baptized [in church]".[4] She attended a Catholic Carmelites school in Haifa.[2] She wrote stories and poems, in both Arabic and Hebrew.

Ayoub enlisted as a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, serving for 2 years as a flight simulator instructor in the Israeli Air Force.[5]

Since 2016, she studies philosophy, politics, economics, and law at Tel Aviv University.

Career
Ayoub hosting the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv

In 2016, she became famous when she read several pieces of her poetry in the framework of the Poetry Slam Israel competition. In the same year, she joined the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation station and started writing and submitting videos. In 2017, Ayoub began to host a weekly cultural programme on the radio station. In the same year, she began hosting the daily TV programme Culture Club on Kan 11.

Ayoub was spokesperson for Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018,[6] which caused a media reaction due to the response of the Israeli Minister of Culture and Sport, Miri Regev, who protested against the fact that Ayoub spoke in Arabic during the live broadcast and did not mention Jerusalem at all.[7]

Ayoub hosted the Green Room (Artists' backstage) of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Israel alongside Assi Azar, whereas Erez Tal and Bar Refaeli hosted the main event.[1][8] On 28 January, Ayoub and Azar hosted the contest's semi-final allocation draw at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.[9]

Personal life

As of 2017, she resides in Tel Aviv with her Jewish-Israeli boyfriend Etay Bar.[10][2]

Ayoub speaks both Arabic and Hebrew.[3] She says of her self-identity in poetry: "[S]ome of you will say I will always be the daughter of the Arab, and at the same time, in the eyes of others, I will always be the daughter of the Jewess. So do not suddenly tell me that I can not be both."[3]

See also

References
  1. Zwart, Josianne. "Bar Refaeli, Erez Tal, Assi Azar & Lucy Ayoub to host Eurovision 2019!". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  2. "לוסי בארץ הפלאות". ynet. 20 September 2017.
  3. ""יש לי וידוי, נולדתי ערבייה": כוכבת הרשת החדשה לא מוכנה ליישב את הסתירות בזהות שלה". Haaretz הארץ.
  4. Jewish-Arab Slam Poet a Hit in Person and on YouTube By Shachar Atwan 29 June 2016: "I’m an atheist and it means nothing to me that I was baptized. On the other hand, culturally I like the atmosphere and spending the Christian holidays with my [nuclear] family. I celebrate Jewish holidays with my [maternal] grandmother and uncles.”
  5. Atwan, Shachar (29 June 2016). "Jewish-Arab Slam Poet a Hit in Person and on YouTube". Haaretz. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  6. "May we have your votes please?". Eurovision Song Contest. 11 May 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  7. "דיווח: שרת התרבות מירי רגב דורשת התערבות ממשלתית באירוויזיון 2019" [Report: Culture Minister Miri Regev demands government intervention in the Eurovision 2019]. וואלה! תרבות (in Hebrew). 16 June 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  8. "Meet the Eurovision 2019 hosts: Bar Refaeli, Erez Tal, Assi Azar and Lucy Ayoub". wiwibloggs.com. 25 January 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  9. Groot, Evert (26 January 2019). "Semi-Final Allocation Draw pots revealed!". eurovision.tv. Eurovision Song Contest. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
  10. "לוסי איוב". Haaretz הארץ.

Media related to Lucy Ayoub at Wikimedia Commons

Preceded by
Sílvia Alberto, Daniela Ruah, Catarina Furtado and Filomena Cautela		 Eurovision Song Contest presenter
(with Erez Tal, Bar Refaeli and Assi Azar)
2019		 Succeeded by
Edsilia Rombley, Chantal Janzen and Jan Smit
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