Israel qualifies for Eurovision final despite controversy
Israel has qualified for this weekend's Eurovision Song Contest final despite controversy surrounding the country’s participation.
Listen to this article
The nation's representative, Noam Bettan, 28, will perform the song "Michelle" during Saturday evening's competition.
The singer and songwriter thanked the crowd at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria, but was given a mixed reception during his act.
Some of the audience shouted and booed during the song.
Read more: Bonnie Tyler 'serious but stable' following emergency surgery as health update released
Read more: Russia claims to have 'successfully tested' hypersonic Satan-2 'doomsday' missile
Portugal, Georgia, Montenegro, Estonia and San Marino were the countries eliminated from the contest following a popular vote, with the latter seeing veteran British pop star Boy George join its entrant Senhit to perform the song Superstar, which he co-wrote.
The result means Moldova, Sweden, Croatia, Greece, Finland, Belgium, Lithuania, Poland, and Serbia all qualified alongside Israel.
Bettan performed inside a shiny diamond, wearing a black outfit, surrounded by female dancers in black and white bodysuits.
A number of protests reportedly took place in the Austrian capital this week over Israel’s inclusion in the contest amid its actions in Gaza, with Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Spain and Slovenia all boycotting the event in protest.
Russia was banned from Eurovision after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but Israel has continued to compete despite disputes.
Israel’s 2025 entrant, Yuval Raphael received the largest number of votes from the public last May, ultimately finishing runner-up to Austrian winner JJ after the jury votes were taken into account.
Two protesters unsuccessfully attempted to storm the stage and throw paint during her performance.
UK entrant Look Mum No Computer, whose real name is Sam Battle, said afterwards: "People can be themselves, and they can also express their opinions, and they can do that this year because the canned audience is unedited, so we’ve just got to see what goes on.
"The audience isn’t controlled, the audience participations with the microphones, they’re allowed to wave whatever flags within the sizing rules and the flammability rules and stuff, so we’ve just got to get on with it."