Israel’s Yuval Raphael finished in second place overall at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, and first in the public vote, as Austria’s JJ took the overall win at the annual competition.
Raphael received the most votes from the public, 297, out of any of the 26 finalists, but was only 14th place in the jury vote, landing Israel with a second-place finish.
Austria topped the jury vote and finished fourth in the televote to take the win with its operatic ballad “Wasted Love.” Estonia finished in third place and the heavy favorites going into the competition, Sweden, ended up only in the fourth spot.
Israel received 12 jury points — the highest possible — from only one country, Azerbaijan. It awarded its own 12 jury points to neighboring Greece, and 10 points to Germany.
“Thank you Europe, Am Yisrael Chai,” Raphael shouted from the stage after completing her song, the emotional power ballad “New Day Will Rise.”
According to Israeli reporters in Basel, security thwarted two separate attempts by protesters to rush the stage during Raphael’s performance. The incidents were not seen on the live TV broadcast, and the Israeli singer did not appear to be aware of them in real time.
In a statement, the Kan public broadcaster, which organizes Israel’s participation in the contest, said it “will not address security issues at the event. We are very proud of Yuval Raphael’s perfect performance on the stage.”
During Raphael’s performance, some loud whistles could be heard in the arena, but not on the live TV broadcast. Only a handful of Palestinian flags could be seen in the audience despite Israeli fears that they would be a dominant presence after Swiss organizers relaxed its flag rules this year.
As Raphael performed, a few hundred people staged an anti-Israel protest in Basel, accusing Israel of genocide and calling for it to be barred from the competition. Some protesters burned Israeli and American flags and fired off smoke bombs.
Blows were exchanged and police used tear gas and rolled in a water cannon truck as they worked to block demonstrators from marching through the center of the northern Swiss city.
According to Swiss news agency Keystone-ATS, the confrontation began when police intervened to stop an altercation after two men rushed towards the protesters waving Israeli flags.
Over the past year, the European Broadcasting Union steadfastly refused any and all calls for Israel to be barred from the competition. The public broadcasters of Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and Belgium appealed to the EBU to ban Israel, and the organizers responded that they would hold a “wider discussion amongst members in due course.”
Both the Belgian and Spanish broadcasters aired pro-Palestinian messages ahead of and during the Eurovision broadcasts. Spain’s RTVE flashed a screen that read in English and Spanish: “When human rights are at stake, silence is not an option. Peace and Justice for Palestine.”
A message from Belgium’s Flemish VRT broadcaster said it was interrupting the broadcast to protest Israel’s violation of human rights” as well as its destruction of “freedom of the press.”
The EBU did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the messages.
Raphael, a 24-year-old amateur singer from Ra’anana, survived the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023. She played dead and hid under a pile of bodies in a roadside bomb shelter for hours, with shrapnel embedded in her leg, until she was ultimately rescued.
Before taking the stage on Saturday, Raphael issued a special thanks to the Shin Bet officers who secured the Israeli delegation during their stay in Basel.
“I don’t know if you understand how much it’s not a given that I felt comfortable, and I felt safe, after what I went through and everything we saw over the past few days,” she said in a video shared by Kan. “I wasn’t afraid for one second, honestly,” she said to applause from the rest of the delegation.
A few hundred anti-Israel activists also held a protest on Wednesday in Basel, and a few dozen took part in a demonstration on Thursday. Basel police said they were investigating after a man was filmed making a throat slitting gesture toward the Israeli delegation during Sunday’s opening ceremony, during which dozens of people turned out with large Palestinian flags.
Overall, anti-Israel protests in Basel were muted compared to last year’s Eurovision in Malmo, Sweden, during which thousands of people marched in the city against Israel and the threat level was so high that Israel’s Eden Golan was forced to skip most events during the week outside of her performances.
Israel has won the competition four times in its 52-year run: in 1978, 1979, 1998 and most recently in 2018, with Netta Barzilai’s “Toy.” Though a number of countries expressed disapproval of Israel hosting the 2019 show in Tel Aviv, ultimately none of them dropped out of the contest.
Agencies contributed to this report.