Israel
Yuval Raphael – New Day Will Rise
Well, it had to happen. Israel sends a peace anthem to Eurovision, and the jokes practically write themselves—though none of them are especially tasteful. New Day Will Rise arrives with all the expected ingredients: orchestral swells, mournful glances, a soft shimmer of multilingual sincerity (French and Hebrew, no less), and rhyming couplets thick enough to spread on toast.
Yuval Raphael delivers the whole affair with practiced poise—vocally competent, if emotionally unconvincing. Her voice is warm, technically solid, and just expressive enough to make the tears in the audience feel vaguely earned. The track itself, however, is a classic Eurovision builder of the more plodding variety, chugging along like a well-behaved ballad that knows it won’t win but hopes to place respectably enough not to offend grandma.
There’s an ill-judged, vaguely tuneless bridge that shuffles in just before the final chorus, as if it got lost on the way to a different entry. It breaks the flow without adding anything, and rather than lifting the song, it reminds you that yes, you’re still listening to this. Still, there’s a professionalism to the whole production that will play well with juries and may just squeak out enough virtue-signalling televotes to land somewhere near the top half of the scoreboard.
Earnest, polished, and utterly risk-averse.
6 points