The contestant representing Israel at Eurovision has said she is anticipating booing during her performance.
Israel is taking part in the 2025 edition of Eurovision and will be represented by a singer called Yuval Raphael, who will be performing a song called ‘New Day Will Rise’. She is a survivor of the Nova Music Festival attack on October 7 2023, in which roughly 1,200 people were killed by Hamas and 251 were taken hostage.
It provoked a 15-month-long attack on Gaza, and since October 2023 over 52,800 people have been killed in the city – including 2,700 since the Israeli offensive resumed (as per BBC).
In a new interview with BBC, the singer said that she is anticipating booing from the crowd during her performance and has already taken steps to get used to disruptions during her set.
“Yeah, I think I’m expecting it… But we’re here to sing and I’m going to sing my heart out to everyone,” she told the outlet. “I had a few rehearsals where we put sounds [in], so I can practice when there are distractions in the background.”
The expectation of backlash during the set comes as there have been calls to have Israel and national broadcaster KAN banned from the 2025 song contest, including from over 70 former Eurovision contestants. That open letter included a signature from 2023 UK contestant Mae Muller, and accused KAN of being “complicit in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and the decades-long regime of apartheid and military occupation against the entire Palestinian people”.
It also highlighted how decisive action has been taken in the past, with 2022 seeing Russia expelled from the competition amid declaring war on Ukraine – something it described as a “double standard”.
Israel is still set to perform at the 2025 edition of Eurovision, and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said that it “understand[s] the concerns and deeply held views around the current conflict in the Middle East” and is “in constant contact with those participating this year”.
Discussing the controversy around Israel’s inclusion at Eurovision, Raphael added: “Everybody has opinions. I’m really putting everything aside and just concentrating on the most important thing. The slogan this year is ‘united by music’ and that’s what we are here for.”
She continued: “It was scary at times, even uncomfortable, but it makes me keep reminding myself why I’m here and my agenda, which is spreading as much love as I can and bringing pride to my country.”
It is worth noting that rules laid out by the EBU outline that no political statements can be made during the song contest. In alignment with this, Raphael will not discuss what happened to her at Nova on October 7 2023 in the run-up to the competition.
The same rules were in place last year, and saw the EBU reserve the right to remove Palestinian flags and symbols during the competition. It also censored Irish contestant Bambie Thug for wearing the words ‘ceasefire’ and ‘freedom for Palestine’ as a hidden message on their outfit.
That year then saw over 1,000 Swedish artists call for Israel to be banned, more than 1,400 Finnish music industry professionals signed a petition to ban the country from taking part as well, and over 400 Irish artists calling on Bambie Thug to boycott the contest too.
In 2025, there haven’t just been the 70 former contestants who have spoken out against Israel’s inclusion; there have been four broadcasters from different countries questioning Israel’s role in the song contest too.
RTVE from Spain requested a discussion about the involvement, Slovenia’s RTV SLO network urged for Israel to be banned, Iceland’s delegation and foreign minister called it “strange” that the country could still be involved in the contest, and Irish broadcaster RTÉ has asked Eurovision for a discussion over the decision.
