Yuval Raphael wrapped up her year as Israel’s Eurovision representative with two heady weeks in Thailand alongside her partner, singer Ido Malka. While Noam Batan was being chosen to represent Israel in Vienna, she was landing during a connection in Abu Dhabi — and managed to turn on her phone at the exact moment Batan was announced as her successor.
It marked the end of an especially successful year, which began with her selection as Israel’s Eurovision representative and continued with her second-place finish in the European song contest.
Although both grew up in the city of Ra’anana, Raphael only met Batan when she appeared on his show as a “surprise singer,” performing the French duet “Je T’aime” with him. “Noam has the full package to represent us,” she says. “He’s an insane vocalist and performer, and there’s something international about him that can connect not only with Jews. He was my favorite from the start, even though all three finalists were amazing.”
What advice would you give him?
“That until Eurovision, he should practice as much as possible, to the point that if someone wakes him up in the middle of the night, he can deliver the performance of his life. But once he lands there, he should let go and enjoy it.”
‘I had a panic attack’
Over the past year, Raphael has been hard to catch in Israel. She performs mostly abroad, hopping between Geneva, Monaco, London, Berlin and Paris, and has already appeared several times in Canada and the United States. There, she received a special award from United Hatzalah, presented by actress Gal Gadot. “There was one month when I flew to New York six times, each time for a day or two and back,” she says. “Sometimes I wake up in the morning and don’t know what country I’m in, knock on wood.”
Six months ago, she released a mini-album titled 22:22, a spiritual number combination that she says means “you’re on the right path.” “I was in such an extreme situation that even my psychologist didn’t always understand me,” she explains. “In moments like that, you have nothing to do but cling to spirituality. Suddenly I started seeing 22:22 everywhere, and I took it as a sign that someone sees me and is telling me I’m OK.”
Two months ago, she opened ticket sales for her first-ever show at the Tel Aviv amphitheater, which sold out and surprised the audience by hosting her partner onstage. Following the success, Raphael will return for another show at Reading on April 30. She will perform songs from the album, memorable performances from Hakochav Haba (“The Next Star”) and the theme song from the TV series Red Dawn, directed by Oded Davidoff, which was recently sold to HBO and is currently being broadcast to millions of viewers worldwide.
Even when she is on top of the world, the trauma she experienced on October 7 accompanies her everywhere. That was the case when she landed at Ben-Gurion Airport after her second-place Eurovision finish, and hundreds of celebrants who had come to greet her swarmed her, some even pulling her hair. “The trauma sometimes meets me at the most illogical moment, and there’s nothing to do, it’s part of me and part of who I’ll be forever,” she says.
What happened at the airport?
“I had just gotten off the plane and suddenly there was a mob I didn’t know how to process. I know it came from love, but I didn’t know how to digest the situation. People literally jumped on me physically, and for a post-traumatic person, that’s not good. The moment they touched me, I completely lost it, I felt I had no control and I went into a panic attack. My makeup artist immediately understood what was happening and pulled me aside. After I calmed down and regained control, I went out to the press conference.”
On October 7, Raphael had been at the Nova music festival with friends. When the rocket fire began, she fled to what later became known as the “death shelter.” For seven hours, she hid beneath bodies and pretended to be dead until rescue arrived. She has told her story in thousands of interviews in Israel and around the world, including a chilling conversation with her father, Zvika, who told her: “Be dead, Yuvali. Turn off the phone and be dead.”
Since she was a little girl, she dreamed of the stage, but that day gave her a different perspective. “All my life, I had one very clear dream — to be a singer. And then another dream was added: to always be happy. I understood that life is short and can end at any moment.”
How does the trauma affect your life today?
“I have dissociation issues. Sometimes it’s hard for me to stay focused for a long time because my brain disconnects. I have severe memory problems. I meet a lot of new people and don’t always remember that I’ve met them before. It’s embarrassing, because I’m a very social person. I love people so much, but out of fear of forgetting someone and hurting them, I avoid forming connections. On The Next Star, when I first sat in a circle with all the contestants, I asked everyone not to be offended by me. On the one hand, I’m glad I have this openness, and on the other, it makes me walk around with my trauma out in front of me.”
How did you realize something was wrong?
“I was sitting with my sister and her friend at a café, and she was talking about something that happened when we met at my place the day before — and I had no idea what she was talking about. My friends consult with me about intimate things, and I don’t remember what they told me. I told myself it would pass, that I’d just been through an extreme event that obviously affects the brain, the mind and the body. But when people started getting hurt, I decided to deal with it.”
What came up in treatment?
“I’m recognized as post-traumatic, so psychologists said it’s a known phenomenon of trauma. But I didn’t want to accept that. I went from doctor to doctor, and only now, after two years, did I reach a doctor who discovered what I have. It’s called a blasting injury, a complex physical trauma caused by exposure to a blast wave, a kind of concussion that affects memory. He gave me a memory test and I scored 2 out of 10. Despite the difficult result, I felt relief. I said, ‘Thank God, at least I know what it is.’”
‘I don’t have time to eat’
Raphael, 25, is the eldest of three children born to Liat, a psychologist by profession and her close mentor, and Zvika, a regional manager in the Ronit Raphael beauty chain owned by his sister. Her parents divorced when she enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces, and, she says, everything hit at once.
“I was in a military police basic training course that was really unpleasant, I had just broken up with a boyfriend I’d been with for four years, my grandfather got cancer, my parents were getting divorced and I wasn’t home to take care of my younger siblings,” she says. “I served as a border police officer and actually really enjoyed my service, but I had severe back pain. After a year, I was injured and transferred to be the battalion commander’s assistant.”
How were you injured?
“I had very large breasts — a huge weight on my shoulders. Add to that a vest, a weapon and 12-hour shifts at checkpoints, and you get extreme back pain that started radiating to my leg and arm. Once, from the pain, I simply collapsed at a checkpoint with my weapon on me. There were a lot of Arabs there, and it was a very frightening situation, so they moved me to another role.”
It doesn’t look like you have very large breasts.
“Because I had two breast-reduction surgeries. I lost a lot of weight and today I’m happy with how my body looks.”
How did you lose so much weight this past year?
“I don’t do anything special. I just work nonstop and don’t always have time to eat. I have a trainer who built me a kind of meal plan, but am I strict about it 100 percent? When you’re constantly traveling, it’s not simple.”
‘How lucky I am that he’s mine’
She met Malka, 27, a reserve combat soldier in the Golani Brigade, on The Next Star, but they only started dating a month after the show ended.
Is it hard to manage a long-distance relationship?
“We’re learning how to contain it, because that’s what our lives are going to be like. In the end, it also contributes. There’s longing, and that’s nice. I’m constantly in a state of wanting him again. We just spent two weeks in Thailand — the longest stretch we’ve had. We were together 24/7, except for the hour I went for a massage. We scheduled that vacation two months in advance, his schedule manager coordinating with mine, and even that involved compromises and changes, because we needed that closeness, that togetherness we miss so much.”
Is there competition between you?
“It’s unavoidable, but I don’t see it as a problem. It’s actually a measure of how strong and good the relationship is. Despite the competition, we genuinely support each other and advise one another without ego. If there’s jealousy, we sit down and reflect it to each other — we don’t ignore it.”
As a singer who started at the top, do you still have dreams left to fulfill?
“Yes, I started at the peak, but I have no intention of stopping here, because the world keeps showing me there are more ceilings to break. For example, after the Next Star finale, when we were driving home on the Ayalon Highway, I told a friend who was with me, ‘In six months, I’ll be on a billboard on Ayalon.’ Before that even happened, I found myself on a huge billboard in Times Square. Do I look like someone who can stop dreaming the next dream? Look at the gifts life keeps giving me.”