Newcomer Yuval Raphael is traveling to Basel in May to compete for Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Yuval Raphael is the name of the 24-year-old who will be playing for Israel on the Eurovision Song Contest stage in Basel this year. This is what the jury and audience voting decided. She’s still a newcomer, but part of her story is well known – Raphael is one of the survivors of the 2023 music festival massacre.
To the background
The R’eim massacre was part of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Hamas stormed the festival site of the “Supernova Sukkot Gathering” festival, where 4,000 visitors celebrated. In the attack, the terrorist organization killed 365 people and took 40 people hostage. Countless people were left frightened and injured.
So does Yuval Raphael. At that time she managed to escape from the premises. Outside the area she found shelter in a public bunker. “Locked up and fearing for my life, I witnessed unspeakable horrors – friends and strangers were injured and killed before my eyes,” she told the UN Human Rights Council in April 2024, “as the bodies of the murdered fell on us, I understood that I had to hide among them to survive the nightmare.” Raphael remembered that in order to make sure that everyone was dead, groups of terrorists came into the shelter one after another and the fire opened. After eight hours, IDF troops came to the rescue. Over 40 people were hiding in the bunker. Eleven made it out alive.
Singing makes Yuval Raphael strong
Now the 24-year-old Israel wants to represent her homeland in the song contest from a position of strength and with pride and so in November she took part in the audition for the singing competition show “Rising Star” on the Keshet 12 channel, where she sang “Anyone” by Demi Lovato performed. During their performance, some jurors furtively wiped tears from the corners of their eyes.
Raphael’s performance of “Anyone”:
In the final round of the show, Raphael was able to convince with her version of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” and won. It was therefore clear that she would compete for Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025.
Her version of “Dancing Queen” in the finale:
In an interview on the show before the finale, the singer talked about her motivation: “I want to tell them the story of the country, what I went through, what others went through. I want to tell the story, but not from a position of pity. I want to tell it from a position of strength.”
More about ESC 2025
The 69th edition will take place from May 13th to 17th in the St. Jakobshalle in Basel. In 2024, Nemo won the music competition.