Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026

Israel is set to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "Michelle", written by Nadav Aharoni, Noam Bettan, Tzlil Klifi, and Yuval Raphael, and performed by Bettan himself. The Israeli participating broadcaster, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC/Kan), selected Bettan as its representative through the show HaKokhav HaBa L'Eirovizion, in collaboration with commercial broadcaster Keshet and Tedy Productions, while the song "Michelle" was chosen internally. As with the previous two editions, Israel's participation is the subject of controversy due to the Gaza war.

Prior to the 2026 contest, the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) until 2017, and the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC/Kan) since 2018, had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Israel forty-seven times since the IBA's first entry in 1973.^[1] They had won the contest on four occasions: in 1978 with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta, in 1979 with the song "Hallelujah" by Milk and Honey, in 1998 with the song "Diva" by Dana International, and in 2018 with the song "Toy" by Netta. Since the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, they had, to this point, managed to qualify to the final 14 times, achieving, besides its 2018 victory, six top ten results, most recently in 2025 with "New Day Will Rise" by Yuval Raphael placing second.^[1]

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, Kan selects an entry to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Kan confirmed its intention to participate in the 2026 contest on 28 June 2025,^[2] announcing on 29 September that its representative would continue to be selected through the reality singing competition HaKokhav HaBa (Rising Star).^[3]

The Gaza war has brought Kan's participation in the contest representing Israel into controversy, with calls for it to be excluded and demonstrations against its participation at the previous two editions.^[4][5][6][7] Broadcasters from Ireland,^[8] the Netherlands,^[9] Slovenia,^[10] and Spain^[11] announced their intention to boycott the 2026 contest if Israel was allowed to compete, and following a European Broadcasting Union (EBU) general assembly meeting on 4 December 2025 which permitted Israel's presence in the event,^[12] all four went ahead with their boycott,^[13] joined by Iceland six days later.^[14]

The artist who would represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 was selected through the reality singing competition HaKokhav HaBa L'Eirovizion (transl. The Next Star for Eurovision), produced by Tedy Productions and Keshet Media Group, and broadcast on Keshet 12 as well as online via mako.co.il. The shows took place at the Neve Ilan Communications Center in Neve Ilan, and were hosted by Assi Azar and Rotem Sela. The judging panel for the competition composed of Assaf Amdursky, Keren Peles, Shiri Maimon (who represented Israel in 2005), Itay Levi, and Eden Hason.^[15] A rotating panel of several guest judges also joined, though their votes did not count towards the result unless a main judge was absent from a performance.^[16][17]

Candidates were required to get a score of at least 70% of the votes from the judges and the studio audience in order to advance.

The 68 candidates who advanced from the auditions each performed an "intimate" song, and the judges picked 21 to proceed. Those candidates were: Agam Hazan, Alona Erez, Daniel Azar, Daniel Shevtsov, Dorin Or, Eitan Aharon, Elior Shemesh, Gal De Paz, Gilly Tsanaani, Mentamer Taganya, Michael HarPaz, Nave Levi, Noam Bettan, Ori Berko, Portrait, Saar Hadar, Shaked Solomon, Shaya Avitan, Shira Zloof, Stav Vaknin, and Tamir Levy.^[32]

In the top 21 round, the votes of the judges and an audience determine one or two contestants to be eliminated from each show.

From this round, the judges awarded each performance a score of between 7 and 12 points, accounting for 50% of the final score, while the votes of the studio audience accounted for the remaining 50%. The two candidates with the lowest scores were up for elimination, and the judges decided who to eliminate.

In this round, the candidates each performed a song by Hanan Ben Ari.

Asaf Liberman and Akiva Novick, who commentate on Eurovision for Kan, joined the judging panel for this round and the final, for which they shared one vote.

The final took place on 20 January 2026 and was divided into a first round, eliminating one finalist, and a superfinal among the remaining three artists, determining the winner. A public vote, held via the Kan app and determining 30% of the results of the first round, was opened after the performances in the first round of the final.^[50] In the superfinal, a 50/50 combination of jury and public votes selected Noam Bettan as the winner.^[51]

The song that Noam Bettan will perform in the contest was internally selected by a professional committee. Any member of the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers in Israel was able to submit entries from 21 December 2025 to 26 January 2026; submissions were required to include at least two lines of Hebrew lyrics.^[52][53] Bettan also submitted his own entries.^[54][55] Approximately 200 submissions were received at the closing of the deadline.^[56] The selected song, titled "Michelle" and written by Bettan with Nadav Aharoni, Tzlil Klifi, and Yuval Raphael, was presented on 5 March 2026 during a special broadcast on Kan 11, aired from the Neve Ilan Communications Center and hosted by Hila Korach.^[57][58][59]

The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will take place at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria, and consist of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May 2026. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final will progress to the final. On 12 January 2026, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country will perform in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.^[60] Israel was scheduled for the second half of the first semi-final.^[61]