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Eurovision is an arena in which Israel often shines, winning in 1978, 1979, 1998, 2018, and possibly in 2025.
By HANNAH BROWN FEBRUARY 4, 2025 19:28
Israel's representative to the Eurovision Song Contest, Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the deadly October 7 2023 attack by Hamas on the Nova festival in Israel's south, sings on a stage in this handout photo obtained by Reuters on January 23, 2025.
(photo credit: ORTAL DAHAN ZIV/KESHET 12/VIA REUTERS)
Early Eurovision betting tables show that Israel is currently in the lead in the Eurovision Song Contest this year. The website Euromix reported Monday that, following the selection of Yuval Raphael as Israel’s representative, Israel has topped the list of all 37 competing countries taking part this year. Belgium and Sweden occupy the second and third slots, respectively. The contest will take place in May in Basel, Switzerland, the home country of last year’s winner, Nemo.
Raphael is a survivor of the massacre at the Supernova Music Festival on October 7, 2023 where about 360 people were murdered by Hamas and about 40 taken hostage, as part of an attack on Israel where 1200 were killed. She has never sung professionally before but impressed the judges on the Next Star for Eurovision (HaKokhav HaBa in Hebrew) talent contest and fans around the world with her strong voice and presence.
Euromix wrote, “Europeans were impressed by Raphael’s vocal abilities shown during the ‘HaKokhav HaBa’ season. They take into account Israel’s unavoidable presence amidst the Middle East conflict and are familiar with Yuval’s personal story of surviving an October 7th strike after surviving from the Nova festival massacre—a story widely covered by international media.”
Last year’s Israeli contestant, Eden Golan, came in fifth overall and second in the audience voting despite being booed loudly whenever she appeared. Golan impressed audiences both at home and abroad with her extraordinary calm in the face of such displays of hatred. Golan’s official music video of the song she performed, “Hurricane,” and a video of her live performance have received tens of millions of views on YouTube. The lyrics to “Hurricane” refer to the music festival massacre.
Raphael’s chances may be buoyed by rumors that the still-popular Golan may write the song that Raphael will perform in the competition.
Raphael said in an interview during the talent contest that after what she experienced on October 7, where she survived hiding under piles of bodies in a roadside bomb shelter, she was not afraid of being jeered by an audience.
“I want to tell them the story of the country, of what I went through, and of what others went through. I want to tell the story, only not from a place of seeking pity. And I want it to be from a place of standing strong in the face of this, and in the face of the boos I’m 100% sure will come from the crowd,” she said. She dedicated her rendition of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” during the competition to “all the angels” whose lives were cut short at the festival.
Previous Israeli winners
Eurovision is an arena in which Israel often shines. Israel won the top prize in 1978 when Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta sang, “A-Ba-Ni-Bi,” and Milk and Honey won with “Hallelujah” in 1979. In 1998, Israel won again with Dana International’s “Diva.”
Israel did not win again until 2018, with Netta Barzilai’s rousing rendition of “Toy,” a self-empowerment anthem, but Israeli songs have often done well even when they didn’t win the top prize. Due to Barzilai’s win, Israel hosted the song contest in Tel Aviv in 2019.
Right now, Kan, Israel’s state broadcaster, is selecting the song Raphael will sing from many submitted by composers and will announce the song and release a video on March 9.
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Only a few countries have selected their contestants yet and Euromix noted that these results were preliminary: “At this stage, not all representatives and songs for this year’s Eurovision are known, and there are still national selections that haven’t revealed their competing songs and artists. Therefore, the betting tables should be taken in proportion. Nevertheless, this important tool shouldn’t be disregarded, and we will continue to follow it.”
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