The last time Yuval Raphael attended a music festival, she found herself hiding under bodies, playing dead as Hamas ravaged Israel’s south massacring thousands and taking hundreds hostage. Over the weekend, she stood on Europe’s biggest stage belting out a beautiful song of hope, New Day Will Rise, showing strength, bravery, resilience and pride.
All while being protested, heckled and threatened, with audience members even trying to storm the stage while she performed.
The result? Raphael walked away from Eurovision with the highest number of public votes from around the world.
While the Australian jury didn’t award Raphael any votes, the Australian public voted with overwhelming support for her and her song.
Perhaps the silent majority is on Israel’s side after all.
As Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Rychin wrote on Instagram, “You don’t vote for a country you hate no matter how catchy a song or compelling its performance. The reality is that the vast majority of people aren’t anti-Israel.”
New Day Will Rise, written by Israeli musician Keren Peles, received 297 public votes, but was only 14th place in the jury vote, landing Israel with a second-place finish. Israel received 12 jury points — the highest possible — from only one country, Azerbaijan.
Following the Grand Final, it was also revealed that Raphael won Semi-Final 2 with 203 points, ahead of Latvia with 130 points.
Ahead of the final performance, Raphael shared a message of thanks to her supporters.
“My dream has always been to sing and perform, but I never imagined I’d also feel like a messenger, a voice. It’s something deeper, stronger, and more meaningful than I ever knew,” she wrote on Instagram. “I feel so much responsibility. So much gratitude. And an overwhelming desire to give you everything I have. This song is yours. You’re right there on that stage with me. Thank you for this honour. Thank you for your love and support. I love you.”
Raphael finished her performance with a resounding, “Am Yisrael Chai”.
According to Israeli reporters in Basel, security thwarted two separate attempts by protesters to rush the stage during Raphael’s performance. The incidents were not seen on the live TV broadcast, and the singer did not appear to be aware of them in real-time.
During Raphael’s performance, loud jeers could be heard in the arena and a handful of Palestinian flags could be seen. However, the support far outweighed the negativity. In an Instagram post, Peles shared an exchange with a Swiss audience member who she originally believed to be Israeli due to his support for Raphael.
“I heard the guy next to me cheering Yuval and I thought he was from Israel,” Peles wrote in the reel. She told the man that she was very touched by his support, especially because last year’s Israeli representative, Eden Golan, faced only hate. “He told me how Yuval was the only one who looked at the audience in the eyes and that’s why he loves her,” Peles wrote.
Israeli producers have also explained that the balcony that forms part of Raphael’s set – a glittering staircase in an enormous chandelier – is a symbolic nod to the famed image of Theodor Herzl on a balcony in Basel during the Fifth Zionist Congress in 1901, a moment Raphael recreated during her visit.
After Raphael’s semi-final performance, the singer described somehow finding her fellow survivors from the roadside bomb shelter in the crowd.
“I looked to the side, I said hi to the crowd, and I spotted my friends from the shelter,” Raphael said in a video shared by the Kan public broadcaster. “Suddenly, I saw my best friend waving, way up high … I was in shock. It gave me so much strength.”
Over the past year, the European Broadcasting Union steadfastly refused calls for Israel to be barred from the competition. The public broadcasters of Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and Belgium appealed to the EBU to ban Israel, and the organisers responded that they would hold a “wider discussion amongst members in due course.”
The Belgian and Spanish broadcasters aired pro-Palestinian messages ahead of and during their broadcasts. “When human rights are at stake, silence is not an option. Peace and Justice for Palestine,” Spain’s RTVE shared on the screen. Meanwhile, Belgium’s Flemish VRT broadcaster said it was interrupting the broadcast to protest Israel’s “violation of human rights” as well as its destruction of “freedom of the press.”
As Raphael performed, a few hundred people staged an anti-Israel protest in Basel, accusing Israel of genocide and calling for it to be barred from the competition. Some protesters burned Israeli and American flags and fired off smoke bombs.
Before taking the stage on Saturday, Raphael issued a special thanks to the Shin Bet officers who secured the Israeli delegation during their stay in Basel.
“I don’t know if you understand how much it’s not a given that I felt comfortable, and I felt safe, after what I went through and everything we saw over the past few days,” she said in a video shared by Kan. “I wasn’t afraid for one second, honestly,” she said to applause from the rest of the delegation.
After the competition, rumours spread that Raphael’s outfit was a tribute to Ariel and Kfir Bibas given their love of Batman and the shape the singer’s dress made when she opened her arms. However, while the Bibas family said they appreciated that their beloved family are still being thought of every day, it was not an intentional styling choice.
Raphael’s stylist also admitted that it was “completely coincidental and cosmic”, saying “sometimes the universe does its own styling”.
Israel has won the competition four times in its 52-year run: in 1978, 1979, 1998 and most recently in 2018, with Netta Barzilai’s Toy. Though a number of countries expressed disapproval of Israel hosting the 2019 show in Tel Aviv, ultimately none of them dropped out of the contest.
Raphael touched down in Israel to a hero’s welcome at Ben-Gurion Airport.
“Thank you all so much for being here,” Raphael told the waiting press. “What an unbelievable welcome. I returned with the greatest sense of pride possible, representing this very special country. The true message behind the song is the State of Israel — what it’s going through and how it continues to look toward a new day. Thank you for giving me the honour of being your voice. I feel a huge victory, but we won’t have a true one until the hostages are home.”
With The Times of Israel
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