The Media Line: Israel’s Noam Bettan Advances to Eurovision Final as Performance Draws Both Cheers and Protests in Vienna  

Israel’s Noam Bettan Advances to Eurovision Final as Performance Draws Both Cheers and Protests in Vienna  

By The Media Line Staff  

Israel’s representative for Eurovision, Noam Bettan, advanced Tuesday to the competition’s final scheduled for Saturday after performing his song “Michelle” in the semifinal in Vienna, where his appearance drew both cheers and anti-Israel protests from audience members.  

The countries that also advanced to the final were Greece, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Moldova, Serbia, Croatia, Lithuania, and Poland.  

During Bettan’s performance, which appeared tenth in the evening’s lineup, several audience members were removed from the venue over anti-Israel chants and disruptions. An activist who shouted “genocide” at Bettan during the semifinal was taken out of the hall by local police.  

Bettan later described to the Israeli media the boos during his performance: “The calls were really, really loud. But I focused on the performance,” Bettan said after leaving the stage. He added, “I searched with my eyes for the Israeli flags in the crowd. That strengthened me.”  

Following the announcement that Israel had advanced to the final, Bettan thanked supporters in Israel and abroad, saying he was grateful “to all the people of Israel, to all the Jews in the world, and to everyone who voted for us.”  

He added, “Wow, I had an amazing performance, I enjoyed every moment, see you in the final. I truly felt like I was singing for the State of Israel. I was simply channeling the people and felt like I was a conduit.”  

Separately, the European Broadcasting Union warned Israel’s Kan public broadcaster over an online campaign encouraging viewers to vote for Bettan, amid updated Eurovision voting rules intended to limit third-party promotional campaigns.  

Martin Green, the director of Eurovision, said organizers contacted the Israeli delegation shortly after seeing online videos featuring Bettan. “Within 20 minutes, we had contacted the KAN delegation to ask them to immediately stop any distribution of the videos and remove them from any platforms where they had been published. They immediately acted to do this,” Green said.  

In response to a query from The Times of Israel, Kan said it “is following all of the rules of the competition.” A source close to the delegation said similar campaigns had also been conducted this year by contestants from Malta and Romania.