Yuval Raphael, Israel’s contestant, qualified for the Eurovision final in the second semifinal at the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, on Thursday night.
Raphael sang “New Day Will Rise,” a song by Keren Peles that references the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel. Raphael, herself a survivor of the massacre at the Supernova Music Festival, looked radiant and sang beautifully.
For any Israeli, it was impossible not to be moved by her performance, as she sang the chorus: “New day will rise/ Life will go on/ Everyone cries/ Don’t cry alone.” The song is mostly in English, with some lines in French and English.
Raphael hit every note; she belted out some lyrics and almost whispered others, with poise and style that recalled the young Barbra Streisand.
While some audience members waved Palestinian flags and booed as she performed –as they did earlier Thursday at Raphael’s final rehearsal – the 24-year-old singer was not rattled, and many in the auditorium cheered.
At the end of the song, she said, “Thank you, Europe! I love you! Merci, toda.”
Before taking the stage, she gave an interview to Keshet 12 and emphasized that competing in Eurovision was a huge personal goal.
“It's a crazy feeling to be here. From a personal perspective, it feels like a huge victory. Like a huge win to fulfil my dream, which has always been there," Raphael said.
On October 7, she hid in a bomb shelter where nearly 40 people were killed after terrorists threw in grenades and fired into the crowd. She was one of 11 who made it out and has spoken of her ordeal in interviews, including recently with the BBC.
Israel's participation in the Eurovision song contest
Hundreds of millions around the world watched the semifinal and voted. Going into the semifinal, Raphael was ranked by oddsmakers in a three-way tie for first place, with Austria’s JJ and Finland’s Erika Vikman. Israel is ranked fifth to win Eurovision at the finals, based on the betting tables. Sweden's KAJ, which competed in the first semifinal, is favored to win with the song "Bara, Bada, Bastu," an upbeat tune about going to a Finnish-style sauna.
The winners of both rounds of semifinals will face off Saturday night, along with the big five – France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and the UK -- as well as the contestant from Switzerland, since the largest countries and the host countries automatically qualify for the finals.
While many former Eurovision contestants and European public broadcasters called for Israel to be banned this year because of the ongoing war in Gaza, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which runs Eurovision, has consistently stated that Eurovision is a competition among public broadcasters, and that Kan, Israel’s broadcasting authority, has not broken any of the rules of the competition.
As Raphael walked the turquoise carpet, Eurovision’s version of the red carpet, earlier this week, she kept her cool as anti-Israel protesters demonstrated alongside the carpet, with one man making a throat-slitting gesture at her. Kan made a complaint to the local police and asked that he be identified and banned from attending further events.
Raphael told Keshet in the pre-show interview, “At times, it was a bit scary, but it reminds me of where my heart is, where my intentions lie.” She thanked her mother and her team for keeping her spirits high throughout the rehearsal period. “They remind me exactly why I’m here and how much love I’ve come with and what an open heart… to bring honor to my country and for the music, and there isn’t anything more beautiful in the world.”
Israel’s contestant last year, Eden Golan, who also sang a tune penned by Peles that could be interpreted to be about coping with the aftermath of the Hamas massacre, faced similar booing and death threats. But she held her head high and ended up finishing in fifth place and coming in second in the audience voting.
KAN’s Eurovision hosts, Akiva Novick and Asaf Lieberman, kept up their trademark acerbic commentary and poked gentle and not-so-gentle fun at some of the more outrageous costumes and performances. But on a serious note, they dedicated Thursday’s broadcast to the memory of Itay Chen, an Israeli-American citizen who was serving in the IDF and who was killed on October 7. Chen was a big Eurovision fan and never missed the show.
Israel has been taking part since 1973 in the song competition established in the mid-50s. It was founded to encourage peaceful competition between nations following World War II. Israel takes part because there are no Middle Eastern song contests that would include it.
Israel took home the top prize for the first time in 1978 with Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta for the song “A-Ba-Ni-Bi,” and again in 1979 with Milk and Honey for “Hallelujah.” In 1998, Israel won again with Dana International’s “Diva.”
In 2018, Netta Barzilai became Israel’s fourth Eurovision winner with her rousing rendition of “Toy,” a self-empowerment anthem. The 2019 Eurovision competition was held in Tel Aviv.
The winners of the semifinals are determined by audience voting, which tends to favor Israel, while the winner of the final is determined by a combination of the audience votes and the national juries. Audiences all over the world can vote at https://www.esc.vote/.
However, it is important to note that those in participating countries cannot vote for their own contestant.
The final will be broadcast on KAN 11 at 10 p.m. on May 17, but as Raphael has noted, just by being in the final, she – and we – have already won.