“I’m having the time of my life,” said Noam Bettan, Israel’s contestant in the 70th Eurovision Song Contest, to an interviewer as he walked the traditional turquoise carpet on Sunday evening in Vienna.
Accompanied by other members of the Israeli delegation and security guards, he shook hands with well-wishers, as fans in the crowd chanted, “Noam! Noam!” Dressed in an oversized beige jacket and sunglasses, he looked relaxed and happy.
The turquoise carpet is a chance for fans in the host country to get a glimpse of Eurovision contestants up close and is held on the Sunday before the contest. This year, Eurovision begins on Tuesday, May 12, with the first semifinal, and Bettan is one of the contestants performing that night. The second semifinal is on Thursday, May 14, and the final will be on Saturday, May 16.
Each country makes an appearance on the carpet and stops for an interview, but there were worries among the delegation’s security detail that there might be a repeat of a frightening incident last year in Basel, when a man got as close as he could to Yuval Raphael, the Israeli contestant, and mimed slitting her throat. He wore a keffiyeh and carried a Palestinian flag.
Previous Israeli contestants harassed at Eurovision
Raphael, a survivor of the Hamas massacre at the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023, where close to 400 people were killed, was able to complete her appearance on the turquoise carpet unharmed. KAN, Israel’s public broadcaster and the body that sponsors the Israeli delegation, filed a police complaint and also asked the EBU to ensure that the man be barred from attending any future events.
Eden Golan, Israel’s 2024 contestant to Eurovision in Malmo, did not attend the turquoise carpet event because it was held on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Golan and the delegation were so often threatened that the singer wore disguises, including wigs and sunglasses, whenever she left her hotel room.
Eurovision is broadcast in Israel on KAN 11.