(
\n May 17, 2026
\n \/ JNS
\n )<\/p>\n
Israeli singer Noam Bettan finished in second place at the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna on Saturday night, earning praise from Israeli leaders after a performance that drew strong public support despite anti-Israel protests and boycott campaigns surrounding the competition.<\/p>\n
Bulgaria\u2019s DARA won the contest with the song \u201cBangaranga,\u201d while Australia came in third.<\/p>\n
Israeli President Isaac Herzog personally congratulated Bettan after the results were announced.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have incredible composure on stage. Thank you so much. You brought honor to the people of Israel,\u201d Herzog told the singer in a call.<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Bettan in a statement released after the final.<\/p>\n
\u201cNoam, you are a source of pride for Israel,\u201d Netanyahu said. \u201cThe second-place finish, for the second consecutive year, is a tremendous source of pride. But beyond the achievement itself, Noam brought talent, emotion and inspiring Israeli representation to the stage. I am very proud of him, and he is a great source of pride for Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prime minister also thanked Israel\u2019s public broadcaster, Kan, for the successful production, which was broadcast live to Israeli audiences on Kan 11 television and Reshet Bet radio.<\/p>\n
Bettan performed \u201cMichelle,\u201d a trilingual pop song in English, French and Hebrew, before an estimated global audience of more than 160 million viewers. He concluded the performance with the phrase \u201cAm Yisrael Chai\u201d (\u201cThe People of Israel Live\u201d), despite scattered boos and \u201cFree Palestine\u201d heckling.<\/p>\n
Israel surged from eighth place to second after receiving a massive public vote tally, prompting audible boos inside the arena when the results were announced. Five countries\u2014Spain, Ireland, Iceland, Slovenia and the Netherlands\u2014boycotted this year\u2019s competition over Israel\u2019s participation.<\/p>\n
The contest was also marked by controversy surrounding Israel\u2019s promotional campaign. Organizers issued a formal warning to Israel\u2019s Kan broadcaster over social media posts encouraging voting for Bettan after critics claimed Israel\u2019s campaigning violated Eurovision guidelines.<\/p>\n
In response, Kan said it complied with all contest rules and removed the posts immediately. Israeli media reported that Eurovision organizers declined to use anti-booing audio technology during Bettan\u2019s performance, despite its use in previous years. Bettan had reportedly rehearsed in advance with simulated crowd boos to prepare for possible disruptions.<\/p>\n
Despite the tensions, Bettan\u2019s polished performance received strong support from viewers across Europe and beyond. Israel received 123 points from the professional juries, placing eighth in that category, and 220 points from viewers worldwide, giving Bettan the second-highest public vote total of the night and 343 points overall.<\/p>\n
In a significant shift from previous years, 22 of the 34 national juries awarded points to Israel, including Poland\u2019s top \u201cdouze points.\u201d Other countries giving jury points to Bettan included France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Ukraine and Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n
The stronger jury showing marked a significant improvement over Israel\u2019s recent Eurovision performances. In 2025, Yuval Raphael received only 60 jury points despite finishing second overall, while Eden Golan received just 52 jury points in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was crazy. It was fun,\u201d Bettan told Kan after leaving the stage. \u201cI love you. Am Yisrael Chai!\u201d<\/p>\n
Bettan, 28, is the son of French immigrants to Israel and was raised in Ra\u2019anana. A professional performer for nearly a decade, he combines a polished pop style with a more traditional side, and was photographed in Vienna praying and putting on tefillin<\/a> ahead of the Eurovision final.<\/p>\n Israel has now finished second in Eurovision for the second consecutive year. The Jewish state first joined Eurovision in 1973 and has won the competition four times\u2014in 1978, 1979, 1998 and 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"( May 17, 2026 \/ JNS ) Israeli singer Noam Bettan finished in second place at the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-445857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445857","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=445857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}