Yuval Raphael finished in second place in the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel on Saturday night and was elated on the morning after her stunning victory.
“I can’t explain to you the level of my excitement,” she said.
“The entire song was dedicated to the people, Israel, my friends, those in my heart, those who are no longer with us today, and the hostages who are still there,” Raphael continued.
Raphael’s song, “New Day Will Rise,” defied the odds, reaching near the very top of the chart as a result of the viewers' votes that came in from around the globe.
ביצוע של גמר יובל רפאל - New Day Will Rise pic.twitter.com/0GzY8oem45
— כאן (@kann) May 17, 2025
The contest’s winner was JJ of Austria with an ethereal ballad titled “Wasted Love.”
“New Day Will Rise” ended up with 297 votes from the millions watching worldwide, which, added to her 60 votes from the international juries, gave the song a final total of 357.
“Wasted Love,” by contrast, won 258 points from the juries but only 178 from audience televoters.
Yuval Raphael: A Nova Festival Massacre survivor
This is the third year in a row that popular votes for Israel vastly outstripped the number of votes it received from the national juries.
For a few tantalizing minutes as the votes were counted, it seemed as if the song might bring Israel its fifth Eurovision victory.
Speaking in an interview with KAN 11 just after the results were announced, a jubilant Raphael said, “Am Israel Chai, and a new day really will rise for us. It always will, no matter what happens. That’s what defines our people more than anything – no matter what we go through, we come back to life again and again.”
Despite the calls to boycott Israel and Raphael’s trauma after she survived the massacre at the Nova music festival on October 7, she kept her cool amid the boos that were drowned out by the cheers for her emotion-filled, dramatic performance.
President Isaac Herzog spoke to Raphael on Thursday, congratulating her achievement at the Eurovision and thanking her for the great pride she brought to Israel.
“First of all, your performance was tremendous. It was perfect – exceptional. I was so moved. You are truly a daughter of Israel for all of us, breaking through the highest ceiling in the world – it’s simply incredible. Just think where you were 590 days ago,” he told her.
Herzog added, “Your cry of ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ touched our hearts. Thank you for representing the State of Israel with such honor.”
Raphael responded that she was honored to represent Israel.
“I will always remember that I was given this voice and the chance to be the voice of these people. I want to thank you for the support you gave me, it strengthened me so much,” she replied.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it until everyone is home: Our only and greatest victory is when all the hostages return home,” Raphael told Herzog.
This 24-year-old, who is bubbly and soft-spoken in interviews, competed against more experienced, flashier performers. Nevertheless, she won over the viewers around the world and even some national juries with the purity and intensity of her performance.
Perhaps there can be no bigger indication of how much her second-place finish meant to Israelis, weary of international hate for Israel, than when the update came in at around 2:30 a.m. Israel time and the Eurovision became the main news.
This, despite a ballistic missile having just been launched at the Tel Aviv region following the announcement of the song-contest results, sending about a million Israelis scurrying to bomb shelters.
Hugging her mother and members of the team that supported her throughout her Eurovision journey backstage, Raphael seemed stunned at first by how well she did.
To compete in this year’s Eurovision contest, the singer first had to win Channel 12’s Rising Star talent competition in a very competitive year, which she did.
RAPHAEL WAS especially aware of the hostages’ plight because she narrowly escaped death on October 7. She attended the Nova music festival and hid in a bomb shelter after rockets started falling.
Hamas terrorists entered her shelter multiple times, shooting the people hiding inside and throwing grenades at them. She called her father, who urged her to play dead.
After hiding for eight hours, Raphael was rescued. Although approximately 50 people entered the shelter, she was one of only 11 people who left it alive.
She sang, “New day will rise/Life will go on/Everyone cries/Don’t cry alone/Darkness will fade/All the pain will go by/But we will stay/Even if you say goodbye,” onstage with powerful emotion.
“I’m grateful for the situation and for our people... to everyone who voted and gave me the feeling of victory. Today, I felt proud; all I wanted was to bring honor and pride to the country and give a second of peace. We won’t have a real victory until our hostages are home,” Raphael said backstage after the competition.
She said that as she sang, she kept her eyes on the prize, which to her meant redemption – the opportunity to represent her story and that of so many others who died or narrowly escaped alive on October 7 to an audience of hundreds of millions.
“I have no way to describe the situation,” she added. “I feel like the message got across more than I expected. I just want to hug everyone. This situation is out of this world. I love you all with all my heart,” she told KAN 11.
Raphael added that she was anxiously anticipating her return to Israel.
“I can’t wait to get on a plane back to Israeli soil. I so badly wanted to hug my friends whom I saw from across the hall. I really just want to hug my friends,” she said.
There were family members of those slain at the Nova festival alongside her friends in the audience, and that helped her focus, she said.
“I can’t even describe how much strength it gave me to know they were in the audience, and also Hila Abir, the sister of Lotan Abir, who was murdered in the bomb shelter and whom I never got to meet.”
WHILE RAPHAEL was poised and focused on stage, all was not so calm in the audience. Ynet reported that a Dutch couple tried to get onto the Eurovision stage during her performance in the final. Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) security officers, along with local Dutch security personnel, prevented them from reaching her.
One of these protesters sprayed paint at the security guards, but no one was wounded.
This was in addition to an incident earlier in the week, when Raphael walked the turquoise carpet, Eurovision’s version of a red carpet, as anti-Israel protests were taking place.
One man made a throat-slitting gesture at her. KAN 11 lodged a complaint to local police over the incident, asking that the individual be identified and banned from attending further events.
Raphael has repeatedly said that after having seen the evil of the Hamas terrorists up close, nothing any European protester could throw her way would keep her from doing her best at the contest.
Graciously, she made sure to praise Austria’s JJ for his winning performance, saying, “He deserves it,” and calling his singing talent “incredible.”
“Honestly, I wasn’t focused on the fact that this was being broadcast to millions of people, as much as I was focused on the fact that there was a message being delivered to so many,” Raphael told KAN 11.
“I didn’t focus on the number of viewers, but on the fact that I had something to say, and I wanted to scream it out loud,” she said.
Raphael did, and in turn, her voice was heard all over the world; a new day indeed.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.