Eden Golan, who represented Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest this year and stayed strong in the face of major harassment, will be a tough act to follow, but Kochav Haba (The Next Star) is already underway to choose Israel’s 2025 representative.
The auditions for the musical competition are broadcast several nights a week on Keshet 12 and can be viewed after the program airs on mako.co.il. As of this writing, five episodes of the program have aired, with another part set to be broadcast on the evening of November 24.
Eventually, a group of finalists will be chosen and will perform different songs to show the depth of their talent before a winner is chosen to represent Israel in the international contest in Basel, Switzerland, in the spring.
Last year, the competition to choose the contestant took place in the shadow of the October 7 massacre and outbreak of war. Golan’s song, “Hurricane,” referenced the losses of October 7, and this year, there are survivors of the massacre among the contestants.
Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the Supernova festival, brought several judges to tears with her version of Demi Lovato’s “Anyone,” a song about coping with mental health issues and loneliness. Although not a professional singer, Raphael received the highest score of the season up to that point, 98%, from the judges.
October 7 survivors
Raphael survived the massacre by playing dead in an outdoor bomb shelter, and her testimony of that harrowing day can be seen on YouTube. She seems to have the inner strength and talent necessary to represent Israel in such a high-profile forum.
Daniel Weiss, who survived the massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri, had to cope with the loss of his father, who was murdered on October 7, and his mother, who was kidnapped by Hamas and killed in Gaza.
He auditioned for The Next Star with the song “I’m a Guitar” by Benny Amdursky and received a 97% score, the highest of the night on which he performed. In January, he performed in a commemorative concert at the charred remains of his family home, along with a group of musicians.
On Saturday night, Valerie Hamati, an Israeli-Arab singer who was a runner-up on a previous edition of The Next Star, impressed the judges with her performance of “Sea Wind” by Ofer Levi and sang the chorus in Arabic.
Because she is quite well known as a singer, with her videos receiving hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, she performed in disguise so her identity would be kept hidden, almost turning the show into an episode of The Masked Singer for a moment. The judges rewarded her performance with a score of 93%. If she were to represent Israel in 2025, her identity would be symbolic of coexistence in Israel.
On the lighter side, Red Band, a puppet performance group created by Ari Pepper, Micah Doman, and Ami Weisel that mixes comedy and music, auditioned with singer-songwriter Moran Aharoni. They collaborated on a rendition of “Human” by Rag’n’Bone Man and charmed the judges enough to make it to the next round.
Although Eurovision features many novelty acts, it’s hard to imagine that Red and the puppets will be hoisting the flag for Israel at Eurovision this year.
While the winner has not been chosen yet, there have been so many strong candidates that Israel seems poised to make a strong showing in Switzerland.