For the first time in years, Israel’s Eurovision Song Contest contestant will bring a masculine energy to the world stage, after the Next Star for Eurovision’s judges and audience selected Noam Bettan to represent the country in Vienna. For the past three years, Israel has sent female contestants to Eurovision.
Bettan, the son of French immigrants, was the front runner going into the final, and his win was widely predicted. The Ra’anana native was chosen over three other finalists, Gal De Paz, Shira Zloof, and Alona Erez. Looking slightly stunned after his win, he said he would do his best to bring honor to Israel.
In an interview with Good Evening with Guy Pines after the competition ended, he said he would get right to work on his Eurovision performance: “Let’s go!”
He closed a circle by winning the right to sing for Israel after he tried and failed in an audition for the competition a decade ago, when he was 17. In the years since, he has built a professional musical career, and his videos have millions of views on YouTube and Spotify.
In the final, he impressed both the judges and the audience, whose combined votes are used to select the winner, by performing Amir Benayoun’s “Nitzachta Iti Hakol” (“You Won Everything With Me”) in Hebrew and “Derniere Danse,” a French song by Indila. He specializes in soulful ballads and has a polished, gentle stage presence.
The Next Star for Eurovision
The talent contest, The Next Star for Eurovision, is shown on Channel 12 on the Keshet network, and from now on, the contest shifts to KAN 11, the public broadcaster. Hosts Rotem Sela and Assi Azar spoke with great respect about KAN’s Eurovision achievements, noting that in 2023, Noa Kirel came in third with “Unicorn,” and that following the outbreak of the war, Eden Golan finished fifth overall with the song, “Hurricane,” and last year, despite increasing harassment, Yuval Raphael, a non-professional, won the audience voting and ended up in second place singing, "New Day Will Rise." These comments by Sela and Azar come in the wake of attempts by members of the government coalition to shut down KAN.
The hosts of KAN’s Eurovision broadcasts, Akiva Novick and Assaf Liberman, joined Next Star and cast their votes alongside the regular judges, a kind of passing of the broadcast torch.
But while the show was the usual glittery spectacle, the hosts took a moment to look back a year ago, when dozens of hostages were held by Hamas in Gaza. They took a moment to remember Ran Gvili, a police officer who fought heroically on October 7 and was kidnapped and later killed in Gaza, where his body is still being held.
Israel has won at Eurovision four times, in 1978, 1979, 1998, and 2018. The event is one of the most watched television programs, drawing hundreds of millions of viewers around the world.