Public broadcaster Kan announced Friday that it has chosen the song that will represent the country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna.
The song was written by last year’s Israeli representative, Yuval Raphael, together with Nadav Aharoni and Tzlil Kalifi. The composition was submitted by Raphael herself. Kalifi and Aharoni composed the music, and Aharoni also produced the track. The song will now be sent for approval to the European Broadcasting Union and is scheduled to be publicly unveiled on March 5.
A professional committee convened several times in recent days to review some 200 submissions written for Israel’s chosen artist, Noam Bettan. The panel anonymously shortlisted around 40 entries before narrowing the field to four finalists, which were recorded in Bettan’s voice ahead of the final decision.
Bettan himself submitted two songs that were not selected. Singer Pe'er Tasi also wrote a song together with Avi Ohayon and Eytan Darmon. In line with changes Kan introduced this year to the selection process, all submissions were required to be entirely anonymous.
As of Friday, Israel was ranked first by betting markets predicting the Eurovision winner. Israel held the top spot even before Bettan was selected on the reality show The Next Star, and remained there after his selection was revealed.
Kan said in a statement that “in all four songs that advanced to recordings for the final stage of the committee’s deliberations, Noam Bettan took part as an artist and creator in shaping the final version that was ultimately submitted to the committee members.”
The broadcaster added that because a song co-written by Yuval Raphael reached the final round, it was decided “out of an abundance of caution” that a representative of Teddy Productions — the company that managed Raphael — would not take part in the vote on that song or express an opinion about it.
Kan said the chosen entry will be performed in Hebrew, French and English, adding that “for the first time after two years of ballads that characterized Israel’s Eurovision style, this time the song will be in a somewhat different style.”