Against all odds, Israel’s Noam Bettan walked onto the stage, sang his heart out in English, French, and Hebrew, and walked off with second place — for the second year in a row — in front of an estimated global audience of more than 160 million viewers.
Five countries refused to show up. Anti-Israel activists flooded the streets of Vienna. Protesters stormed the semi-final. And when the votes poured in Saturday night at the 70th Eurovision Song Contest, the crowd booed. None of it mattered.
Bettan, 28, son of French immigrants who raised him in Ra’anana, performed his multilingual pop ballad “Michelle” alongside five backup dancers, and the crowd in Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle sang along. He concluded the performance with “Am Yisrael Chai” — “The People of Israel Live” — despite scattered boos and “Free Palestine” heckling. The boos came from activists. The love came from Europe’s television viewers.
Israel took home 343 points overall — 123 from the juries and 220 from the public — while Bulgaria, whose dance hit “Bangaranga” proved a crowd favorite, got 204 from the juries and 312 from the public, cementing first place with 516 points total. Bulgaria’s win — the first in the country’s history — itself came as a shock; bookmakers had predicted Finland, Australia, or Greece as the likeliest champions.
The stronger jury showing marked a significant improvement over Israel’s recent Eurovision performances. In 2025, Yuval Raphael received only 60 jury points despite finishing second overall, while Eden Golan received just 52 jury points in 2024. This year, Bettan earned 123 jury points, a number that, combined with the public’s overwhelming embrace, sealed the result.
Israel won the public televote outright in Finland, Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, Azerbaijan, and France. Poland’s grand jury awarded Israel its coveted “douze points” — the maximum 12 points. Ukraine and Moldova gave 10 and eight respectively.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog personally congratulated Bettan after the results were announced. “You have incredible composure on stage. Thank you so much. You brought honor to the people of Israel,” Herzog told the singer. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also praised Bettan, calling the second-place finish “a tremendous source of pride” and thanking Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, for its production.
Bettan himself was direct about what the night meant. “Thank God who blessed us with second place. I feel proud, I feel like we won,” he told Ynet. Asked about the jeers that erupted in the arena when Israel’s massive public vote was announced, he said: “I heard them, but like lions we raised the flag and shouted Am Yisrael Chai. We’re not ashamed of who we are.”
The backdrop to this second-place finish was the most politically charged Eurovision in the contest’s 70-year history. Five countries — Spain, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Iceland — decided that because of the war against Hamas that began on October 7, 2023, Israel should be booted from Eurovision. They demanded that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) vote at its general assembly on whether Israel could continue to participate. The EBU declined to vote but instead instituted several changes to the rules widely seen as designed to limit Israel’s ability to perform well.
Despite attempts to boycott Israel and remove it from the competition, Noam Bettan achieved a significant milestone for Israel against all odds. The anti-Israel protests that activists promised would shake Vienna drew embarrassingly small numbers. A Saturday afternoon rally near the venue drew only a few hundred people — far short of the 3,000 organizers had predicted. A similar protest on Tuesday drew only a couple of dozen activists.
Bettan, a professional performer for nearly a decade, combines a polished pop style with a more traditional side, and was photographed in Vienna praying and putting on tefillin ahead of the Eurovision final.
Yuval Tzafir, head of the Israeli delegation, did not understate the moment: “We brought enormous pride to the country in a difficult time. Second place twice is a huge victory. I’m proud of Noam — a true prince.”
Bettan told Kan after leaving the stage: “We could not have asked for a better result. I tried to stay focused. I sang with joy, with a smile on my face.” He said he hoped to have given Israelis “a moment of hope.”
