Prior to the 2006 Contest, Israel had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-eight times since its first entry in 1973. Israel has won the contest on three occasions: in 1978 with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" performed by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta, in 1979 with the song "Hallelujah" performed by Milk and Honey and in 1998 with the song "Diva" performed by Dana International. Since the introduction of semi-finals to the format of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, Israel has, to this point, managed to qualify to the final one time, including a top ten result in 2005 with Shiri Maimon and "Hasheket Shenish'ar" placing fourth.