By Pesach Benson and Noa Aidan
JERUSALEM — 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, sang, “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.”
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, 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 Oct. 7, 2023, 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 UN 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.
“After eight hours of constant fear, only I and 10 others were saved from our four square-meter shelter.” Nearly 40 people were massacred in the shelter.
Success in Switzerland did not come easy. Ahead of the competition, Israel’s National Security Council issued a travel warning to Israelis to avoid displaying Jewish or Israeli symbols and to avoid posting on social media, among other measures. Raphael’s personal security was boosted.
During the opening ceremony, Yuval was met by thousands of anti-Israel protesters. Some hurled insults at her; others made throat-slitting gestures.
During her semi-final performance, boos rippled through the crowd.
During Raphael’s final performance on Saturday night, May 17, two people tried to storm the stage.
But in the final moments of her performance, Yuval called out in Hebrew, “Am Yisrael Chai,” “The nation of Israel lives.”
Former hostage Eli Sharabi who was freed during a temporary ceasefire last February, posted on Instagram, “So much strength in one woman! Yuval, you absolutely nailed it. You gave an entire nation the greatest sense of pride imaginable.”
