Israel taps Noam Bettan to represent country at 2026 Eurovision

Noam Bettan, 27, a singer born in Israel to French immigrant parents, has been selected as Israel’s entrant for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

Bettan, who hails from Ra’anana, will represent his country at the competition in Vienna in May after winning this season of “Hakochav Haba” (Rising Star) during the grand finale Tuesday night.

When this season of Rising Star premiered in November, Israel’s inclusion in this year’s contest hung in the balance, as a growing chorus of artists and fans were calling for it to be barred from the competition over its war against Hamas in Gaza.

But last month, members of the European Broadcasting Union voted overwhelmingly not to kick Israel out of the competition, a move which prompted Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Spain and Slovenia to boycott this year’s contest in protest.

Bettan is aware that he will not be welcomed to the contest with open arms by everyone, but he said he won’t let it faze him.

“It’s entering the lion’s den,” Bettan said during an interview Tuesday morning with the Kan Gimmel radio station. “But I can say that seeing those few Israeli flags in the audience — you look at that, and you know that you have a whole nation behind you, and you’re their voice. It’s truly a privilege.”

The song he will sing at the contest is expected to be unveiled in March after being selected by a committee convened by the Kan public broadcaster, which organizes Israel’s participation in the contest.

After being crowned the winner on Tuesday, Bettan thanked the public “for choosing me — I will give it my all, I’ll do everything I can to represent our country. It’s such a huge fucking privilege.”

Bettan beat out fellow finalists Gal De Paz, Shira Zloof and Alona Erez to take the top prize, with Israel sending a male contestant to the Eurovision for the first time since 2022.

“I really want to represent the country at Eurovision,” Bettan said during Tuesday night’s broadcast. “I think it’s a mission like no other — and it will bring pride to my parents who came from abroad, from France, and chose to come here.”

And if he would win the competition, “I can bring the world here. Do you understand what a privilege that is during this time?”

Unlike the contestants Israel sent to the competition the past two years, Bettan has a music career already underway, although he is not among the country’s best known performers.

In 2018, Bettan appeared on the music TV competition show “Aviv or Eyal,” winding up in 3rd place overall. He since released a number of singles, including “Madame,” which he used as his audition song for Rising Star this year. In 2023, Bettan released his first full album, “Above The Water.”

Bettan, who said he grew up speaking French at home, has utilized the language throughout his time on Rising Star, including on Tuesday night when he capped off the evening with a rendition of “Dernière danse.”

There’s a good chance the song selected for him by Kan will incorporate French — a favored Eurovision language — into the lyrics, as it did last year for Yuval Raphael, who spent a number of years living in Switzerland as a child.

Bettan is expected to face a similar reception that Eden Golan received in Malmo, Sweden, in 2024 and Raphael in Basel, Switzerland last year — protests, threats, booing and Palestinian flags. But he’s also likely to benefit from the groundswell of support that both singers saw in the face of such hate, with Golan finishing second in the public vote and fifth overall, and Raphael coming first in the public vote and second in the contest.

Indeed, with only a handful of contestants confirmed and four months until the 2026 Eurovision in Vienna, Israel is currently positioned in first place in the betting odds. That placement is likely due to analysts expecting a replay this year of the organized support for Israel’s representative in the televote from pro-Israel fans.

However the professional juries from each country, which make up 50% of the final vote, are likely to place Israel in a lower position, in part to avoid the headache that would come from an Israeli win, granting it the right to host the 2027 competition.

Israel, which has participated in the Eurovision since 1973, has won the contest four times in 1978 with “A-ba-ni-bi” by Izhar Cohen; 1979 with Gali Atari’s “Hallelujah,” 1998 when Dana International won with “Diva” and in 2018, when Netta Barzilai’s “Toy” took the top spot, allowing Israel to host the contest in Tel Aviv in 2019.