When it comes to Eurovision, Israel is building a reputation for delivering jaw-dropping songs.
Last year, Nova festival survivor Yuval Raphael wowed audiences with the sweeping ballad “New Day Will Rise,” Israel’s official entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025. The song began softly and gradually built in intensity, moving through English, French, and Hebrew in a way that gave it both emotional depth and a distinctive elegance.
Raphael’s soaring vocals elevated the performance, while the lyrics, including the line “darkness will fade, all the pain will go by,” carried an implicit echo of the horrors of October 7. With a stunning performance, Israel ultimately took second place in the competition.
Noam Bettan is ready to go to bat
This year, singer Noam Bettan brings a distinctive voice and a deeply emotional performance to the Eurovision stage. In the music video for “Michelle,” Bettan pines for a woman who appears to have moved on, even as he remains hopelessly in love with her. Like last year’s Israeli entry, the song moves across three languages, this time flowing from French to English to Hebrew. Over a pronounced beat, Bettan sings lines like “round and round under your spell,” capturing the dizzy, obsessive pull of heartbreak.
What sets “Michelle” apart most is its infectious chorus, where Bettan shows off both his vocal power and his range, belting one moment and slipping into a sweet falsetto the next. In one especially dramatic moment, the music drops out entirely as he sings, only to surge back in at the end of the video, when Michelle turns and smiles at him, and he smiles back. Unlike some recent Israeli Eurovision entries, “Michelle” is a straightforward romance song, with no apparent political message.
Bettan, 28, won the twelfth season of the singing competition “Rising Star” to earn the chance to represent Israel at Eurovision, which will take place in Vienna this May. He co-wrote “Michelle” with Yuval Raphael, Nadav Aharoni, and Tzlil Klifi. One of his biggest earlier hits is “Buba” (“Doll”), a pop track in which he laments being played by a woman “like a doll.” It is a catchy, emotionally charged song that also highlights the vocal strength he now brings to Eurovision.
Still, no Israeli Eurovision entry arrives in a vacuum. Even when the song itself centers on romance rather than national trauma or political symbolism, Israel’s participation in the contest is often scrutinized through a political lens. Bettan is heading into Eurovision with a love song, but also into a spotlight where the music rarely gets to speak entirely for itself.
The pressure of politics
Israel’s place in Eurovision this year has become a political flashpoint. After the European Broadcasting Union decided to keep Israel in the 2026 contest, broadcasters in Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Iceland withdrew in protest over the war in Gaza. The contest is set for Vienna, Austria, with the semi-finals on May 12 and 14 and the grand final on May 16.
That tension has been heightened by fallout from last year’s competition. After Yuval Raphael finished second overall and won the public vote, several broadcasters raised concerns about the integrity of the televote. Those concerns grew after an investigation found that an Israeli government agency had paid for ads urging viewers in participating countries to vote for Israel’s entry, though the EBU said it found no evidence of voter fraud and defended the system even while acknowledging the complaints.
In response to those controversies, Eurovision organizers have tried to lower the temperature around the contest itself. Recent changes include no-filming zones for artists, more closed-door rehearsals, and a duty-of-care protocol aimed at protecting performers from unnecessary physical or emotional distress. For 2026, the EBU also strengthened its Code of Conduct and voting rules in an effort to reinforce the contest’s neutrality and restore trust. Whether those guardrails will be enough in a year as politically charged as this one remains to be seen.
Raphael performed last year amid protests and security fears, and Bettan has made clear that he expects a difficult atmosphere in Vienna as well. In a January interview with Kan Gimmel, he described Eurovision as “entering the lion’s den,” but said that seeing even a few Israeli flags in the crowd would remind him that “you have a whole nation behind you, and you’re their voice. It’s truly a privilege.” Austria’s host broadcaster, ORF, has already said it will not mute boos or ban Palestinian flags during Israel’s performance, meaning Bettan may have to sing through audible hostility if protests erupt inside the arena.
And the pressure may extend beyond Gaza alone. With Israel’s war with Iran widening the regional crisis, Bettan could face demonstrations tied to both conflicts. He may be singing a straightforward pop romance, but in Vienna, the performance is likely to be treated as something much larger than the song itself.
Image matters
At Eurovision, image matters almost as much as the song itself. In the public relations battle over Israel’s global reputation, the country is often drowned out by critics who reduce it to war and conflict. Eurovision offers Israel a rare chance to project something else: artistry, polish, strong songwriting, and the kind of stagecraft that can remind viewers there is more to the country than the headlines.
That has already been true for the past two years. In 2025, Israel finished in second place with 357 points as Yuval Raphael delivered a performance that felt impossible to ignore. A year earlier, Israel placed fifth with Eden Golan’s “Hurricane,” a song that had originally been titled “October Rain” before its lyrics were revised. Even in its updated form, the song still carried the emotional aftershocks of October 7, with lines about losing control, holding on through chaos, and feeling “still broken in this hurricane.” Like Raphael’s entry after it, “Hurricane” showed how Israel has leaned into emotionally charged, vocally demanding performances that can resonate far beyond politics.
If Israel lands in the top five for a third straight year, it will only reinforce that pattern. Bettan, like Golan and Raphael before him, has the kind of package Eurovision rewards: strong vocals, multilingual appeal, camera-ready presence, and an ability to sell emotion onstage. At a moment when support for Israel appears to be softening among many Gen Z audiences, a key segment of Eurovision’s fan base, that kind of performance matters. The decision to weave together Hebrew, French, and English also gives “Michelle” a broader, more universal reach. If the voting is driven more by musical impact than political backlash, Bettan has a real shot at finishing near the top.
