Despite anti-Israel chants in arena, Israel’s Noam Bettan advances to Eurovision final

Singer says boos were quickly drowned out by support and that he felt he was ‘just singing to Israel’; 2 activists reportedly removed from event hall by security after interruptions

Israel’s Noam Bettan qualified on Tuesday night for the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, after his semifinal performance garnered him enough points to advance.

Bettan performed “Michelle” in French, Hebrew and English over the sounds of “stop the genocide” chanting in the Wiener Stadthalle in the Austrian capital, which could be heard on the live broadcast at the start of the song. Austrian public broadcaster ORF had said it would not use anti-booing technology during the show.

According to the local Österreich newspaper, two people who were interrupting the broadcast were physically removed from the arena by security.

“I heard the boos, but quickly afterward, I heard calls from people on our side who were making noise and lifting me up,” Bettan said in a video message shortly after the performance. “And it immediately lifted my spirits and warmed my heart. It filled me up, it gave me strength.”

Bettan told The Times of Israel in an interview last month that had been practicing to the sounds of booing in order to be prepared.

“Thank you so much, toda raba,” he said on stage after completing the song. “Thank you Europe, I love you.”

Along with Israel, Greece, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Moldova, Croatia, Serbia, Lithuania and Poland also advanced to Saturday’s grand final. That means Portugal, Georgia, Montenegro, Estonia and San Marino have been cut from the competition.

The results were decided by a combination of jury votes and public votes from each country. The European Broadcasting Union does not release the full breakdown until after the grand final.

Bettan and dancer Lihi Freud began the song inside an enormous diamond-shaped stage prop, which opened up, allowing them to emerge and join four other backup dancers on stage for the rest of the song.

“I feel incredible, what a performance it was,” Bettan said in a video message after exiting the stage. “I enjoyed myself so much.”

At one point toward the end of the song, when singing the Hebrew line “someone who will hear me,” Bettan said: “I was just singing to Israel — it sounds like such a cliche, but I was singing to Israel, and I felt it on every level.”

The qualifiers from Tuesday evening will compete Saturday night against the “Big Four” countries — France, Germany, Italy and the UK — as well as the 10 qualifiers from Thursday night’s semifinal, and host country Austria.

This year, the Eurovision brought back the professional jury votes in the semifinal rounds, as part of a package of reforms agreed to by members last year to address concerns raised after Israel’s runaway televote win in 2025.

The semifinal rounds were decided 50/50 by the jury and public votes until 2023, when the juries were scrapped in the early rounds and kept only for the grand final. This year, in addition to the return of semifinal juries, votes have been capped at 10 per person instead of 20 and the EBU promised to crack down on “disproportionate promotion campaigns,” especially those funded by governments.

The EBU on Saturday sent a direct warning to Israel over an ad campaign featuring Bettan in a number of languages calling for people to vote for him 10 times, saying it was “not in line with our rules nor the spirit of the competition.”

Kan quickly pulled the campaign from social media and maintained that it did not broken any rules of the competition.

This year’s Eurovision, the 70th edition of the annual song contest, has been shadowed in controversy over Israel’s participation.

Spain, Slovenia, Iceland, Ireland and the Netherlands led a push to kick Israel out of the contest, and when they were unsuccessful in doing so, quit in protest, leaving just 35 nations in the competition — the largest boycott in Eurovision history.

A small anti-Israel protest was held in central Vienna on Tuesday evening. Only around a dozen people appeared to be in attendance at the event, organized by the Palestine Solidarity Austria group.

The protesters chanted “No stage for genocide” and held up signs calling for Israel to be barred from the competition. The activists also arranged a number of small fake coffins with photos of children on them to represent children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.

Larger anti-Israel protests are slated for both Friday and Saturday in Vienna, with at least hundreds of participants expected. A small pro-Israel protest is also expected in the city on Thursday.

Last year, Israel’s Yuval Raphael — who co-wrote “Michelle” — finished second overall after coming first in the televote, with “New Day Will Rise.” In 2024, Eden Golan finished fifth overall and second in the televote with “Hurricane.”

Israel has won the competition four times since it began competing in the Eurovision in 1973 — in 1978 with “A-Ba-Ni-Bi,” 1979 with “Hallelujah,” 1998 with “Diva” and 2018 with “Toy.”

Bookmakers have predicted that Finland will take the top prize this year, followed by Greece and then Denmark. Israel is predicted to finish in sixth place, although the odds were wrong about the winner for the past two years.