Israeli singer Yuval Raphael placed second in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, held May 17 in Basel, Switzerland. Her song, “New Day Will Rise,” is an operatic pop ballad with a music video that references concertgoers fleeing the Hamas attacks on the Nova Music Festival. She herself survived the Oct. 7, 2023 festival massacre, where she hid in a bomb shelter for eight hours. Following her father’s advice over the phone, she played dead. Of the roughly 50 people in the shelter, only 11 survived.
Nineteen months later, Raphael, 24, would be representing Israel at Eurovision.
Survivors of the massacre and family members of those who were murdered were in attendance to support Raphael at the St. Jakobshalle Arena.
During her performance at the Eurovision Finals, Raphael wore a black jumpsuit designed by Israeli fashion designer Victor “Vivi” Bellaish. Following her performance, there was widespread speculation online that the black sleeves were a reference to Batman — which has been associated with the Bibas brothers, two young Israelis who were murdered by Hamas. Bellaish told Mako News that the symbolism was unintentional. “The effect created was beyond what I could have imagined, sometimes the universe does its own styling.”
Eurovision was first held in 1956, and Israel has been participating since 1973. Israel has won four times and hosted the contest three times.
“New Day Will Rise” was written by Israeli singer-songwriter and composer Keren Peles, who co-wrote “Hurricane,” Israel’s 2024 entry. The first verse and each chorus of the song are in English, the second verse is in French and the bridge after the second chorus is in Hebrew. Raphael’s stage setup featured a crystal-bedecked spiral staircase, which was a subtle reference to a famous photo of Theodor Herzl on the balcony of the Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois in Basel at the Fifth Zionist Congress in 1901.
Raphael finished just behind the winner, Austrian singer JJ performing “Wasted Love.” After the results were announced, Raphael told Israel’s KAN11 that “[JJ] deserves it,” and described JJ’s voice as “incredible.”
Eurovision’s scoring is a combination of jury votes from each participating country (who cannot vote for their own country), and a public televote. For the jury vote, Israel finished 14th out of 25 with 60 points. Azerbaijan’s jury was the only one that ranked Israel number one, giving Israel 12 points. Israel awarded its own top jury score of 12 points to Greece.
The public televote points are allocated based on whoever has a plurality of public votes from that particular country. People are allowed to vote up to 20 times each. Israel received the top ranked public vote from 12 countries: Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and “The Rest of the World” vote. Israel received partial points from the public in 22 other countries. The public vote from three nations— Armenia, Croatia and Poland — did not give Israel any points. Still, Raphael and Israel earned 297 televote points — the most of any contestant in the competition.
Just before 4:00 p.m. Los Angeles time, Israel’s total vote tally was revealed to be 357, temporarily vaulting Raphael to the top spot. In the last two minutes of the show, only Austria’s and Switzerland’s public votes were left to be revealed. The Switzerland performers looked disappointed when they learned they had received zero public votes — which left Israel at the number one spot. The final public vote to be revealed was Austria, which needed 100 public points to win. They received 178, bringing their total to 436 and clinching the win.
The show aired on Saturday evening in Israel, where missile sirens blared following rocket attacks from Yemen. Nobody was injured and no damage was reported.
Raphael received death threats during the week leading up to the finals. During her live performance, two people, identified by officials as a Dutch couple, attempted to rush the stage. One of them threw paint at a crew member, but no injuries were reported and the incident was not visible on the live broadcast. In Spain, immediately before Raphael’s performance, the national public broadcaster displayed the message: “When human rights are at stake, silence is not an option. Peace and Justice for Palestine.” Spain’s televoters later awarded Israel their full 12 points.
On May 11, during Eurovision’s turquoise carpet event, a man made a throat-slitting gesture toward Raphael, and Israeli broadcaster KAN — which sponsors Israel’s Eurovision contestant — filed a complaint with local police. At Raphael’s May 16 dress rehearsal, six individuals with flags and whistles attempted to disrupt her performance and were removed by security. On the night of the finals, protesters outside the 8,000-seat arena in Basel called for Israel to be disqualified. On-site reporters described the atmosphere as much calmer than the protests for Eden Golan’s Eurovision participation in Malmö, Sweden last year.
The Journal spoke with an anonymous Eurovision insider. They told The Journal Israel’s support was likely from voters who would not normally pay any attention to Eurovision, but turned out specifically for Israel. That trend appeared to hold true in Los Angeles, where over 50 people gathered for a watch party at Casita Del Campo restaurant in Silverlake.
The watch party was organized by three local Jewish community platforms: Shalom SoCal, Mish Mish LA, and a popular WhatsApp group, “LA Jewish Events.” Katie Guastini, who runs ShalomSoCal, has been a Eurovision fan since 2023. She hosted a small Eurovision watch party at her house in 2024.
“This year, we have people from everywhere, which in LA is a big deal — people coming to Silverlake from Brentwood, Venice, Westwood, the Valley, Agoura Hills. There’s a need for this kind of community and everyone is so excited.” When disappointment washed over the crowd as Austria was crowned winner, Guastini was the first to reassure everyone, shouting, “Hey, remember, we got number two.” Attendees were already saying that even though Eurovision won’t be in Tel Aviv next year, Los Angeles should have a massive watch party in 2026.
Until then, you will undoubtedly hear live performances of “New Day Will Rise” at pro-Israel events — “Hurricane” was a popular tune this past year. Sarah Seltzer, a Los Angeles-based violinist with a degree in music theory, offered analysis of the composition and performance. “Compared to last year’s Eurovision song, ‘Hurricane,’ I think that this one is a lot more harmonically complex and interesting. For someone like Yuval Raphael, who hasn’t had a professional career before this, she did a great job negotiating a lot of those modulations. Given everything — the song worked really well.” Seltzer said that she expects singers covering “New Day Will Rise” to have a fun time putting their own twist on the song. “I can hardly wait for all the people to post their covers and new harmonies over it,” Seltzer said.
Back in Israel, Raphael returned to a hero’s welcome by a raucous crowd of supporters at Ben Gurion Airport. She used the moment to put a spotlight not on herself, but on people still being held captive by Hamas terrorists. “I feel like we had a huge, huge victory, but we will never have a victory until all of our hostages return home,” Raphael said.
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