Singer Yuval Raphael returned home to an emotional hero’s welcome in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening after taking second place in the Eurovision song competition in Switzerland.
Raphael, 24-year-old a survivor of Hamas’ massacre at the Nova Music Festival, finished the competition in second place for her song, “A New Day Will Rise.” She earned the highest public vote with 297 points but placed 14th with the jury, securing Israel second overall.
“Yuval is uniting all of Nova. She gives them a home, a voice, a place to rest,” Sofia Shterenzon, one of Raphael’s closest friends since middle school told The Press Service of Israel.
“I couldn’t sleep all night. It’s insane. She did the unthinkable,” Shterenzon added. “My heart rate would just keep rising every time she performed. But honestly, I had no doubt she’d succeed. She’s not someone who gets scared. She’s just in her element up there.”
Raphael earned the highest public vote with 297 points but placed 14th with the jury, securing Israel second overall, giving first place to Austrian singer JJ.
“We didn’t expect much from the jury. It’s always like that,” Shterenzon explained. “But I was terrified she wouldn’t make it into the top five.” Then came the public votes — and a miracle. Israel rocketed to the top of the scoreboard, clinging to first place until Austria’s win was announced.
“That’s incredible,” Shterenzon said emotionally. “It means she really conquered the world. The jury scores don’t matter. What matters is that people — real people — heard her, saw her, and loved her. I can’t even speak.”
The St. Jakobshalle venue in Basel was a long way from the Nova Music Music Festival. The all-night music festival near Kibbutz Re’im and attended by 3,500 people, became a killing field where 364 people were massacred and 40 others were taken hostage. Of all the locations attacked by Hamas on October 7, the highest death toll was at the music festival. A memorial at the site of the festival has emerged as a pilgrimage point for Israelis to process their grief and for visiting foreigners to show solidarity.
Raphael was dancing with friends when the attack began. They fled to a shelter, but terrorists found it and fired on everyone inside.
In April 2024, she described to the United Nations Human Rights Council how she survived.
“Trapped and fearing for my life, I witnessed unspeakable horrors — friends and strangers alike were injured and killed in front of my eyes. When the bodies of those murdered fell on us, I understood that hiding under them was the only way I could survive the nightmare,” she told the council delegates in Geneva. “After eight hours of constant fear, only I and 10 others were saved from our four square-meter shelter.” Raphael added that nearly 40 people were massacred in the shelter.
Image - Reuters - Video - Use according to Section 27 A of the law