My Introductory Notes: This article from Haaretz today (May 18, 2025) describes the 2^nd place finish of Israel’s spectacular new-comer star, Yuval Raphael, in the 2025 Eurovision Competition. She was not expected to place second, but her song and her beautiful voice, won the day. I post at the end the link to Yuval’s official entry into the competition.

No one from a singer’s host country is permitted to vote for his/her own country’s entry, so Yuval won on the merits, despite anti-Israel demonstrations inside and outside the concert hall.

Yuval survived the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre of 1200 Israeli young people at the Music Festival in Southern Israel by hiding for 8 hours underneath the bodies of fellow concert-goers who had been murdered.

Yuval had never performed before any large audience, so to ascend so quickly to represent the people and State of Israel at this international competition before 6500 people in the hall and millions watching on television is a remarkable accomplishment. She did so with courage and grace, and her voice is spectacular – resonant, beautiful and open, entering the heart.

Here is the Haaretz article:

The Eurovision Song Contest final ended on Saturday night in Basel, Switzerland. Israel’s Yuval Raphael’s performance of “New Day Will Rise,” a song written by Keren Peles, finished in second place, with Austria taking the lead.

The competition venue, which holds around 6,500 spectators, featured performances by several frontrunners, including Sweden, Austria and France.

Audience voting opened at the start of the performances. A combination of public votes and national jury scores determined the final results. Viewers could vote up to 20 times using the official app, phone, or text message. Jury votes had already been cast during a rehearsal held Friday night.

Austria was crowned the unexpected winner, after Wasted Love by JJ received a total of 436 points. Israel received 357 points. The public votes awarded Israel 297 points – more than any other country.

Raphael, 24, was at the Nova music festival during the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.

During the attack, she hid in a shelter near Kibbutz Be’eri and sustained shrapnel injuries. She was one of only 11 survivors from that shelter, having hidden under the bodies of victims for eight hours.

She later shared her harrowing experience in a speech before the United Nations Human Rights Council. Witnesses said that on Saturday, two protesters—a man and a woman from Holland — splashed red paint and began shouting during Raphael’s performance. Security guards quickly led the protesters out of the venue.

Since Thursday’s second semifinal, Israel had dropped to seventh place in the betting rankings, with Finland and Estonia overtaking it. Raphael was scheduled to perform fourth out of 26 entries – a relatively early slot that, according to past trends, tends to reduce a country’s chances of winning.

During Friday’s jury rehearsal – and similarly in Thursday’s semifinal dress rehearsal – a few audible boos and other disturbances could be heard during Yuval Raphael’s performance. However, no disruptions were heard during rehearsals for the press.

After a relatively quiet week, a pro-Palestinian protest took place in Basel ahead of the final. Several hundred people gathered in central Basel to express solidarity with the Palestinian people and to oppose Israel’s participation in the contest. Demonstrators chanted slogans such as “Boycott apartheid Israel,” “No stage for genocide,” and “Free Palestine.”Swiss police declined to provide Haaretz with information regarding the investigation of a pro-Palestinian demonstrator who made a throat-slitting gesture toward Raphael and the Israeli delegation on Sunday. “The public prosecutor’s office is handling the case, and for tactical reasons, we cannot provide further information at this stage,” the police stated repeatedly.