{"id":325172,"date":"2026-03-06T15:29:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T15:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/325172\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T15:29:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T15:29:49","slug":"against-all-odds-israels-eurovision-song-might-actually-be-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/325172\/","title":{"rendered":"Against all odds \u2014 Israel\u2019s Eurovision song might actually be good"},"content":{"rendered":"

From The Beatles to Elton John and Guns N’ Roses, and even artists such as Anouk and the Israeli band Mashina, quite a few musicians have found a \u201cMichelle\u201d worth writing about. <\/p>\n

Considering that Bettan himself did not exactly emerge from the reality show The Next Star as a meteor of extraordinary originality, and given the national mood amid, well, a war with Iran, expectations for the song were not exactly soaring. The drawn-out broadcast by public broadcaster Kan \u2014 stretched as though people had the time and patience for it with all the air raid sirens \u2014 certainly did not help.<\/p>\n

But then, at long last, the song was revealed. And what do you know: it\u2019s a pretty great \u201cMichelle.\u201d Tzlil Kalifi, Nadav Aharoni, Yuval Raphael<\/a> and Bettan have concocted an excellent Eurovision entry \u2014 easily among Israel\u2019s best of the past decade (even without help from Keren Peles<\/a>). <\/p>\n

It is simple but not simplistic, tailored like a bespoke suit to the charismatic singer, produced in line with the restless spirit of the times yet carrying the sweet haze of cigarette smoke from a Parisian brasserie in the 1970s. Even the blend of languages \u2014 Hebrew, French and English \u2014 does not sound like an emergency gathering of AI experts.<\/p>\n

Tourists may return to Israel only when the Messiah arrives, but perhaps we will at least see a spike in Google searches for Florentin, the hip Tel Aviv neighborhood namedropped in the song.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1 View gallery <\/p>\n

\"\u05e0\u05d5\u05e2\u05dd<\/a>\"\u05e0\u05d5\u05e2\u05dd<\/p>\n

Noam Bettan in the video clip for Michelle <\/p>\n

(Screengrab: Kan)<\/p>\n

The stylish music video, directed by Ofir Peretz, completes what is a fairly attractive artistic package, and not only by the standards of Israel\u2019s current national chaos.<\/p>\n

Of course, that does not mean success in the competition itself is guaranteed \u2014 and not just because \u201ceveryone is antisemitic.\u201d The main professional challenge is that the nature of the song requires Bettan to deliver a peak vocal performance at the decisive moment of the live show. It might be wise to show him again and again the off-key notes by Harel Skaat in the 2010 Eurovision final, as a reminder of what happens when you try to feel like you\u2019re standing on top of the Eiffel Tower but your voice ends up sounding like a roadside motel.<\/p>\n

In that sense, Bettan\u2019s existing stage experience may help him, even if a stage like Eurovision is something he has never experienced before \u2014 and may never again.<\/p>\n

At the end of the broadcast, presenter Hila Korach proudly described the entry as \u201ca love song that sounds like a country living normal lives.\u201d Of course, shortly afterward, crowds once again had to run to bomb shelters as sirens sounded \u2014 the real melody that cannot currently be switched off.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, it is possible that the next hit in public shelters will be \u201cAi-ai-ai-ai \/ Oh-oh-oh-oh.\u201d That\u2019s something, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From The Beatles to Elton John and Guns N’ Roses, and even artists such as Anouk and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":["post-325172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}