After two impressive rehearsals late last week, Yuval Raphael, Israel’s representative at the Eurovision Song Contest, jumped a spot in the Eurovision betting tables.
These rehearsals are closely monitored by the vast network of Eurovision bookmakers. Going into the contest, Raphael was in fifth place; following the rehearsals, she jumped to fourth.
The act currently favored to win is Sweden’s KAJ with the song, “Bara bada bastu,” a typically upbeat Eurovision tune performed by three cute guys wearing suits, one of whom plays an accordion, that extols the stress-reducing virtues of going to a sauna with your best buddies.
The Eurovision betting tables have a decent track record in predicting the competition’s winners. The oddsmakers were right about five of the winners in the past six competitions, and about 80% correct in guessing which acts will make it to the semifinals.
Raphael is in Basel, Switzerland, where the 2025 Eurovision competition will take place starting on May 13. She is a survivor of the massacre at the Supernova music festival in which over 360 people were killed and another 40 were kidnapped by Hamas, some of whom are among the 59 hostages still held in Gaza. Her song, “New Day Will Rise,” references healing after trauma.
A clip from the second rehearsal was released Friday, and it showed Raphael’s stellar vocalizing and stage presence, as well as the elaborate sets, costumes, and pyrotechnics that will accompany her performance in the second semifinals, which will be held on May 15.
That Israel is predicted to do well, and is in the competition at all, does not sit well with many former Eurovision participants. Last week, 70 of them called for a ban on Israel, and Nemo, the winner of last year’s competition, who won with “The Code,” reiterated their opposition to Israel’s participation in an interview published Friday on HuffPost UK.
“I personally feel like it doesn’t make sense that Israel is a part of this Eurovision. And of Eurovision, in general, right now,” Nemo was quoted as saying.
“I don’t know how much I want to get into detail, but I would say I don’t support the fact that Israel is part of Eurovision at the moment.”
Response to calls for Israel's exclusion
Nemo later sent another comment to the website, which said:
“I support the call for Israel’s exclusion from the Eurovision Song Contest. Israel’s actions are fundamentally at odds with the values that Eurovision claims to uphold – peace, unity, and respect for human rights.”
Eurovision’s director, Martin Green, has repeatedly responded to such calls, saying Eurovision is a contest between public broadcasters, not governments, and that because its broadcaster broke Eurovision’s rules, while KAN, Israel’s public broadcaster, has not.
In an interview with Deadline published last week, he said, “We’re not immune to what’s going on in the world, and neither should we be. But I do think there is a place, particularly in sport and entertainment, for major events that seek, momentarily, to sit to one side. There has to be a space where we can come together and just enjoy ourselves, but also, more seriously, to paint a picture of a world as it could be, rather than as it is…
“If we see people gathered on stage through song, perhaps it is a reminder that it is possible to get along. That may be a romantic vision, but it’s one I believe. I’ve worked on the Olympics and major sporting events, and I do believe that there needs to be that space to show that another way is possible,” Green shared.
Israel began competing in Eurovision in 1973 and has won four times.
The semifinals will be broadcast on KAN 11 on May 13 and 15. The grand final will air on May 17 at 22:00 on KAN 11 – online, on digital platforms, and on KAN BOX.