Music

Yuval Raphael knows she has her work cut out for her. Israel’s entry into the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest is slated to take the stage on for Thursday’s (May 15) second semi-final round amid tensions around the country’s participation in the global singing competition in the midst of its ongoing war in Gaza.
The 24-year-old tells Billboard she’s ready for whatever comes her way: “Every one of us is experiencing difficult times and none of us are immune to it.”

Raphael is a survivor of the Oct. 7, 2023 Nova Festival massacre in Israel, which was part of a surprise attack in which Hamas raiders murdered more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 men, women and children in an assault that set off the now year-and-a-half-long war between Israel and the militant group. (Before talking with Billboard, per competition rules, Raphael’s team stressed that the singer could not answer questions about her escape from the Nova massacre or comment on the war in any fashion.)

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The singer won her spot at Eurovision by coming out on top in Israeli reality talent show Hakohav Haba (Rising Star); her uplifting anthem, “New Day Will Rise,” is her first professional effort after a lifetime of singing in her bedroom. “In my heart I knew that it was going to happen and I used to imagine big stages… but now, doing it professionally feels like a dream come true,” she tells Billboard in a WhatsApp chat.

She sings the song in French, Hebrew and English, the latter because, she says, English is an international language she thinks will help audiences connect with the lyric. “I wanted the message to be out there and understood,” she says of the soaring track on which she sings, “New day will rise, life will go on/ Everyone cries, don’t cry alone/ Darkness will fade, all the pain will go by/ But we will stay, even if you say goodbye.”

Looking for a spot in Saturday’s (May 17) finale, Raphael says the song’s strong message of hope will connect with audiences, pointing to the chorus line about crying as the key to its emotional punch. “Crying is not a bad thing, it’s a way of expressing your emotions and letting everything out instead of keeping it inside,” she says. “And crying with someone else or someone that relates to your grief is something that is so healing… hopefully they’ll take the message of embracing each other and bringing hope to each other.”

As with many Eurovision entries, “New Day Will Rise” is full of uplifting lyrics, soaring emotion and a broad message. Raphael will deliver it from inside a huge silver spiral staircase structure on a massive set featuring video of a cascading waterfall (which is on the somewhat subtle side for the show’s typically way over-the-top production).

British author Chris West, who wrote the 2017 book Eurovision! A History of Modern Europe Through the World Greatest Song Contest — which looked at the sometimes wacky song contest’s intersection with political, cultural and social movements over the past sixty-plus years — tells Billboard that despite event organizer European Broadcasting Union’s insistence that the event remain non-political, it’s inevitable that world events get reflected in its mirror-ball gaze.

“Eurovision makes a big thing about it not being political,” he says, not surprised that the Israeli delegation is sensitive to any hint of mixing events on the ground in the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza with Raphael’s performance. He notes that in 2022 audiences were clearly behind Ukrainian group Kulash’s Orchestra’s run to the top with the song “Stefania” just weeks after Russia launched its unprovoked war on the nation. In 2024, there were also calls for a boycott of Eurovision over the inclusion of an Israeli singer.

Last week, more than 70 former Eurovision contestants signed a petition once again calling on organizers to ban Israel from the competition. West says there is a history of current events impacting Eurovision. In 2021, Belarus was suspended after their song “Ya nauchu teya,” as well as a replacement track, were deemed to have violated the contest’s rules about political messages; in 2022, Russia was denied entry over its invasion of Ukraine.

Last year’s entry from Israel, Eden Golan — who had to change her song title from “October Rain” to “Hurricane” after complaints that it was viewed as a thinly veiled message about the Gaza war — said she received death threats and was booed when she sang. That reaction is something Raphael has said she expects to hear when she sings on Thursday in Switzerland, where she lived for several years as a child.

“It’s pretty unusual to be booed,” West says, adding that it did happen in 2014 when Russia’s entry, the Tolmachevy Sisters, were hit with boos during the semi-finals, seemingly in response to Russia’s invasion of Crimea that year. “It’s always been political in my view, but probably getting more political as its profile rises,” he says. “In Europe, the perception of Eurovision as a joke is over, and people take it more seriously — and as it is taken more seriously, the political aspects will matter more.”

Though she’s barred from discussing it, Raphael’s story is one of the most unusual in Eurovision history. She was nearly killed when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israel on Oct. 7 while she was attending her first outdoor rave. The singer and her friends sprinted to a bomb shelter, with nearly 50 people trying to cram into the small concrete bunker as assailants fired gunshots and lobbed grenades at them.

An Israeli documentary about the mass killing featured a recording of Raphael calling her father in a panic, asking him for help as he counseled her to “play dead.” The tactic allowed her to be one of fewer than a dozen survivors in the shelter, as she hid under a pile of bodies for nearly eight hours until her rescue — on a day when nearly 400 other Nova attendees were killed.

A student of past Israeli Eurovision singers such as 2015 entry Nadav Guedj (“Golden Boy”), as well as 2018’s winning artist, Netta (“Toy”), and 2023’s Noa Kirel (“Unicorn”), Raphael says she reached out to Golan for advice on how to deal with the agita surrounding her participation and the expected push-back from protesters.

“I think the best way of dealing with all the noises is reminding yourself that there is a sole purpose to this contest, which is to bring honor to your country and give a good and honorable performance,” she says — noting that her mother, her biggest supporter, is always by her side. She’s already encountered some of that resistance when demonstrators shouted at her and flew Palestinian flags during Sunday’s turquoise carpet event in Basel, Switzerland, where this year’s edition is being held.

“This competition has such an amazing slogan, ‘United By Music,’” she says. And though she’s not allowed to reference her dramatic backstory, Raphael thinks the song does it for her. “That is the beauty in music: Anyone can take it to their heart and relate to it in your way,” she says. “My song has such a strong message, and hopefully it will [reach as many people as possible] — so I’m very, very excited to be sending that message all over the world.”

At the end of the interview, dropping her on-message mode briefly, Raphael has a final message she feels compelled to share — just hours before the last known living American hostage, Edan Alexander, was reunited with his family after more than 18 months in captivity.

“The hostages should have been home a very long time ago — and hopefully until we’re back, everyone will be home,” she says, in reference to the approximately 58 Israeli hostages that are still in Gaza as the competition kicks off in earnest.

There will be 37 countries participating in this year’s competition, which you can stream on Peacock beginning with Tuesday’s (May 13) first semi-final at 3 p.m. ET. The Grand Final will air on Saturday (May 17) beginning at 3 p.m. ET.

Listen to “New Day Will Rise” below.