Yuval Raphael departs for Basel ahead of next week’s Eurovision Song Contest

Yuval Raphael, Israel’s 2025 Eurovision contestant, departs for Basel, Switzerland, ahead of the competition next week.

“Thank you to everyone who gave me the opportunity to reach this position,” she tells the rest of the delegation in comments on the tarmac ahead of their departure. “My hope is to bring you as much honor as possible, and to represent this country with the honor it deserves,” she says, adding that she hopes that by the time the delegation returns to Israel, “all of the hostages will be with us here at home.”

Raphael is slated to hold her first rehearsal in Basel tomorrow afternoon, where she will sing “New Day Will Rise” for the first time on the Eurovision stage. Israel is competing in the second semifinal, which is to be held live on May 15, hoping for a spot in the grand final on May 17.

Before departing, Raphael, who survived the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, visited President Isaac Herzog at his residence in Jerusalem, where he told her that “every time I hear the song, my heart swells with pride.”

“When you step on that stage, remember that you will be in the hearts of every Israeli home, of the entire Jewish people in the Diaspora, and especially in the hearts of the pure and grieving families of the Nova tragedy, of that horrific massacre,” he told her last week, in comments released today by his office.

Raphael told the president that “I can’t help but feel that just being there is already a victory, that I have the privilege to do this.”