Israel has a recent habit of sending power ballads to Eurovision.
There was Eden Golan’s “Hurricane” in 2024, then Yuval Raphael’s “New Day Will Rise” last year.
This time, the country is trying something different with “Michelle,” a more upbeat pop track by Noam Bettan, in which he sings about a toxic relationship over Spanish guitar and a shuffling Middle Eastern beat.
It’s also largely in French. “Adieu ma belle / Je te laisse partir / Mais je t’aime,” Bettan sings in a typical excerpt. (“Goodbye my love, I’m letting you go, but I love you.”)
Bettan’s language choice stems from his French heritage: His parents emigrated to Israel from Grenoble, France, before he was born.
The 28-year-old’s appearance at Eurovision is the end point of “more than eight years of hard work, Sisyphean work,” trying to make it as a singer, Bettan recently told The Times of Israel.
Although Israel has won Eurovision four times, the contest’s stage is a fraught place for any Israeli right now. Five Eurovision stalwarts, including the Netherlands and Ireland, have boycotted the show this year to protest Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
Bettan told the BBC this week that he had heard “booing and everything, and there was a moment of, like, a wow effect, you know? A little bit of shock.”
Bettan’s presence has also stirred controversy in Vienna for another reason. Last week, excerpts from planned video ads by him appeared on social media in which he encouraged fans to vote for his song the maximum 10 times allowed.
Eurovision’s organizer issued a statement saying it had told Bettan’s team that the ads were “not in line with our rules nor the spirit of the competition” and told him to drop the campaign.
Bettan told the BBC this week that he had been unaware that contestants weren’t allowed to ask fans for multiple votes, and had deleted the ads.
The ads echoed ones that Israel’s last entrant, Yuval Raphael, released last year and the Israeli Government Advertising Agency placed on YouTube, leading to accusations that Israel was trying to unduly influence the vote. Other nations don’t typically release calls for fans to vote the maximum number of votes.
KAN, Israel’s public broadcaster, which selects the country’s Eurovision entry, has said in a statement that it was never involved “in any prohibited campaign” to influence results.
Alex Marshall is a Times reporter covering European culture. He is based in London.
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