Israel reveals Eurovision 2025 song titled ‘New Day Will Rise,’ to be performed by Yuval Raphael

Renowned Israeli songwriter Keren Peles wrote the lyrics and melody for ‘New Day Will Rise,’ the musical arrangement and production were done by Tomer Biran, and the French translation was provided by Tamir Hitman.

By Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner

Israel’s public broadcaster Kan 11 announced on Monday that Israel’s song for the 69th Eurovision Song Contest is titled “New Day Will Rise,” which will be performed in the international singing competition by Yuval Raphael.

The track will feature lyrics in three languages – English, Hebrew, and French. Raphael, 24, performed songs in all three languages while competing on the Israeli singing competition “HaKochav Haba” (“Rising Star”), whose winner goes on to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest.

The Ra’anana native won the 11th season of the Israeli competition that began in November and ended in mid-January.

She will represent her home country in this year’s Eurovision, which will take place in Basel, Switzerland, in May. Raphael lived as a child with her family in Switzerland for three years and she is fluent in French.

Renowned Israeli songwriter Keren Peles wrote the lyrics and melody for “New Day Will Rise.” The musical arrangement and production were done by Tomer Biran, and the French translation was provided by Tamir Hitman.

Kan 11 will debut the full song on Sunday during a special broadcast.

Raphael is a survivor of the Hamas-led terrorist attack at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7, 2023. She hid in a roadside bomb shelter near the site of the musical festival and laid beneath dead bodies of victims, pretending to be dead for several hours, until she was rescued.

She talked about her experience during the massacre in a speech given before the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Similar to last year, there are already efforts to boycott Israel’s participation in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, because of the country’s military actions during its war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip who orchestrated the deadly rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The Slovenian public broadcaster RTVSLO has asked the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the Eurovision context, to expel Israel from this year’s competition, and the Spanish public broadcaster RTVE said last week that its board of directors will discuss whether it will urge the EBU to do the same.

In the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place during the Israel-Hamas war, Israel’s representative Eden Golan finished in fifth place with the song “Hurricane,” despite facing death threats, being booed on stage by anti-Israel protesters, and having a jury member refuse to give her points because of his personal dislike for Israel.

Golan said she was forced to wear a disguise outside her hotel during the competition in Malmo, Sweden, because of the threats she received from those who opposed Israel’s participation in the contest.

One of Golan’s fellow competitors in the Eurovision admitted that she received “so much hate” during the contest.

In 2023, Israeli singer Noa Kirel finished third in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Unicorn.” The last time Israel won the Eurovision was in 2018 with Israeli singer Netta Barzilai and her song “Toy.”