{"id":477528,"date":"2026-05-10T09:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T09:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/477528\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T09:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T09:21:13","slug":"michelle-betting-odds-and-israel-controversy-eurovision-2026-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/477528\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Michelle,’ betting odds and Israel controversy: Eurovision 2026 guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who is representing Israel? What song will he perform on the big stage? Whom should Israel fear according to the betting tables? And what are our chances of reaching first place?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

3 View gallery <\/p>\n

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

Noam Bettan rehearsing on the Eurovision stage <\/p>\n

(Photo: Corinne Cumming, European Broadcasting Union)<\/p>\n

Eurovision week officially opens today, Sunday, in Vienna, Austria, with the turquoise carpet event, which brings together representatives of all the delegations.<\/p>\n

The first semifinal, in which Israel will compete as the 10th contestant in the broadcast, will take place Tuesday evening, May 12, at 10 p.m. on Kan 11. The second semifinal will be held Thursday, May 14, and the grand final will take place Saturday, May 16. All broadcasts will air on Kan, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation.<\/p>\n

Noam Bettan, 28, was chosen to represent Israel in the contest after winning the 12th season of \u201cThe Next Star\u201d (HaKokhav HaBa). He arrives at the competition after a long journey: At age 16, he already tried to get accepted to \u201cThe Next Star,\u201d and later broke into public consciousness on \u201cAviv or Eyal,\u201d but struggled to cope with the rapid exposure.<\/p>\n

Over the years, he released songs such as \u201cBuba,\u201d \u201cKvish Mahir\u201d and \u201cMadame,\u201d performed on small stages and later also at the Barby, while also working as a waiter in event halls, at the beach and in restaurants, until he decided to devote himself to music. Bettan\u2019s family, who grew up in Ra\u2019anana, immigrated to Israel from France, a background reflected in the French side of his identity and in his Eurovision song, \u201cMichelle.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

3 View gallery <\/p>\n

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

Noam Bettan <\/p>\n

(Photo: Ortal Dahan Ziv)<\/p>\n

The song Bettan will perform onstage in Vienna is called \u201cMichelle,\u201d an upbeat love song written by Yuval Raphael, Israel\u2019s representative at Eurovision last year, together with Tzlil Klifi and Nadav Aharoni.<\/p>\n

Noam Bettan has taken the Eurovision stage in Vienna twice with \u201cMichelle,\u201d and the Israeli delegation has described the rehearsals so far as successful. Already in the first rehearsal, the central element of the staging was revealed: a giant stage prop known in the delegation as \u201cthe diamond,\u201d inside which Bettan opens the song alongside one of the dancers. According to the delegation, it is \u201cthe largest prop in this year\u2019s Eurovision production.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe diamond\u201d incorporates internal mirrors, creating an effect of duplicated figures reminiscent of the \u201cMichelle\u201d music video, with dozens of dancers. Later in the number, it remains in the background and continues to accompany the performance, while the main part takes place onstage around it. Alongside the staging, the delegation reported enthusiastic reactions after the first rehearsal to the vocal abilities Bettan displayed in the hall.<\/p>\n

Bettan later went onstage for a second rehearsal, which lasted about 20 minutes, ahead of the first semifinal. Before the rehearsal, delegation head Sharon Derix said the goal was \u201cto fix the smallest things\u201d in the performance. Afterward, Kan said Bettan delivered \u201cimpressive vocal abilities with a precise, powerful and moving performance,\u201d and Derix added that she was \u201camazed by his professionalism\u201d and by the way he repeatedly manages to take the big stage and deliver precise and impressive vocal performances.<\/p>\n

Michelle, this is a toxic love, I’m in the darkness<\/p>\n

How did you leave me in the shadows?<\/p>\n

A star without fame, a great madwoman<\/p>\n

I no longer know what to do<\/p>\n

God, I beg you, wake me up<\/p>\n

So I dance, dance with the pain<\/p>\n

You will see me laugh, laugh again<\/p>\n

You’re my pain, I was only a decoration<\/p>\n

I screamed, screamed, screamed<\/p>\n

I’m letting you go, goodbye my beautiful<\/p>\n

I’m letting you go, but I love you<\/p>\n

Michelle, Michelle, Michelle, Michelle<\/p>\n

Aye-aye-aye-aye-aye-aye (Oh-oh, oh-oh)<\/p>\n

Aye-aye-aye-aye-aye-aye (Oh-oh, oh-oh)<\/p>\n

I (I), I’m losing my mind<\/p>\n

‘Round and ’round (‘Round and ’round)<\/p>\n

I’m letting you go, goodbye my beautiful<\/p>\n

I’m letting you go, but I love you<\/p>\n

Michelle, Michelle, Michelle, Michelle<\/p>\n

Aye-aye-aye-aye-aye-aye (Oh-oh, oh-oh)<\/p>\n

Aye-aye-aye-aye-aye-aye (Oh-oh, oh-oh)<\/p>\n

And maybe in the end, things will turn out well for us<\/p>\n

Pray on you that you will deserve to love<\/p>\n

Between tear to tear, there is someone who will hear<\/p>\n

There is someone who will hear<\/p>\n

I’m letting you go, goodbye my beautiful (Michelle)<\/p>\n

I’m letting you go, but I love you<\/p>\n

The queen of problems (Ooh; Oh-oh, oh-oh)<\/p>\n

Michelle, Michelle, Michelle, Michelle<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

3 View gallery <\/p>\n

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

Noam Bettan rehearsing on the Eurovision stage <\/p>\n

(Photo: Corinne Cumming, European Broadcasting Union)<\/p>\n

The countries competing against Israel\u2019s representative in the first semifinal on Tuesday are Moldova, Sweden, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Georgia, Finland, Montenegro, Estonia, Belgium, Lithuania, San Marino, Poland and Serbia. In the second semifinal, which will be held two days later, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Romania, Luxembourg, Czechia, Armenia, Switzerland, Cyprus, Latvia, Denmark, Australia, Ukraine, Albania, Malta and Norway will compete.<\/p>\n

In addition, the representatives of Italy and Germany, who will present their songs in the first semifinal, as well as the representatives of France and Britain, who will present theirs in the second semifinal alongside the representative of host country Austria, advance automatically to the final because they are part of the \u201cBig Five,\u201d meaning the five countries that fund the competition.<\/p>\n

As of this writing, Finland\u2019s representatives are ranked first in the betting tables to win with the song \u201cLiekinheitin,\u201d which as \u201cflamethrower.\u201d Behind them is the song by Greece\u2019s representative, \u201cFerto.\u201d Bettan is ranked sixth in the betting tables.<\/p>\n

As previously reported, many storms accompanied Israel\u2019s road to Eurovision in Austria, as a significant number of countries threatened to boycott the contest<\/a> if Israel took part because of the war in Gaza. The European Broadcasting Union came under pressure from powerful countries in the competition, including Spain and the Netherlands, but ultimately it was decided to make slight changes to rules that had ostensibly benefited Israel, such as reducing the power of the home audience in the semifinals and increasing the influence of the juries.<\/p>\n

During the controversy, Israel received particularly strong backing from host country Austria and from Germany, the most powerful country in the European Broadcasting Union, which effectively enabled Israel\u2019s participation in the contest, alongside the Israeli team\u2019s intensive work to prevent an early Israeli disqualification.<\/p>\n

Despite the rule changes, which were ostensibly to Israel\u2019s disadvantage, the Netherlands and Spain were not appeased and withdrew from the competition. Iceland, Ireland and Slovenia did the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who is representing Israel? What song will he perform on the big stage? Whom should Israel fear according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,19,17,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-477528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-tv"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116549549406520180","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}