Israel's Noam Bettan qualifies for Eurovision final after Semi‑Final 1 performance in Vienna

Eurovision is a song contest, but it’s also a live-pressure machine. One performance can go wrong in a dozen ways — bad vocals, bad staging, a hostile crowd, a technical slip — and your year is over. Israel got through that test on Tuesday, May 12. Noam Bettan performed “Michelle” in Semi-Final 1 in Vienna and qualified for Saturday’s grand final. ### What happened on Tuesday night? Bettan sang 10th in the first semi at Wiener Stadthalle, the main Eurovision arena in Vienna, and his song made the cut when the 10 qualifiers were announced at the end of the show. Eurovision’s semis are brutal in a simple way — 15 songs go in, 10 survive, and the rest are done for the year. Israel advanced alongside Belgium, Croatia, Finland, Greece, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Serbia and Sweden. (jpost.com) ### What was the song? The entry is “Michelle,” performed by Bettan for Israel. The performance leaned into a polished pop setup, with Bettan front and center and five female dancers around him — the kind of staging that has to read instantly on camera because viewers only get three minutes to decide. Bettan, 27, came into Eurovision after winning Israel’s national selection in January. He was born to a family from France and raised in Ra’anana, which matters here because French is part of his musical identity and part of the act’s appeal. (eurovisionworld.com) ### Why does qualifying matter so much? Because qualifying is the whole gate. Eurovision’s grand final on Saturday, May 16 will have the automatic finalists — host Austria plus the “Big 4” of Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom — along with 10 countries from each semi-final. If you don’t get through the semi, the contest is basically over for you. Bettan getting through means Israel stays in the main event, where the audience is bigger and the stakes are much higher. (jpost.com) ### Was the performance straightforward? Not really. The crowd reaction was mixed. Bettan got applause, but there were also boos and whistles in the arena, plus anti-Israel chants. He said afterward that he heard the boos at the start but focused on the performance and looked for Israeli flags in the audience to steady himself. That matters because Eurovision is live television — if a performer looks rattled, viewers feel it immediately. Bettan didn’t look rattled enough to miss the final. (eurovisionworld.com) ### Was there backstage drama too? Yes — and that’s part of why the qualification lands as more than a routine result. In the run-up, Israeli coverage described a tense 24 hours for the delegation. One of Israel’s dancers, Lihi Freud, was injured during a jury rehearsal after being struck in the head by a production camera, and the delegation also raised concerns about a staging malfunction. None of that stopped the live semi-final performance from going ahead or stopped Israel from advancing. (ynetnews.com) ### Who else got through? The full Semi-Final 1 qualifier list was Belgium, Croatia, Finland, Greece, Israel, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Serbia and Sweden. The countries eliminated were Estonia, Georgia, Montenegro, Portugal and San Marino. Eurovision doesn’t publish the detailed semi-final points until after the grand final, so for now we know who qualified, but not exactly where Israel placed within the 10. (ynetnews.com) ### Where did Bettan come from? Bettan earned the Eurovision ticket by winning Hakohav Haba — “The Rising Star” — on January 20. That made him Israel’s representative for the contest’s 70th edition in Vienna. So this week’s result is the second hurdle, not the first: first win the national selection, then survive the semi, then try to make something happen in the final. (eurovisionworld.com) ### So what changes now? Now the story shifts from survival to placement. Bettan is no longer fighting for a seat at the table — he has one. The next question is whether “Michelle” can turn a successful semi-final into a real final-night result once the full field is set after Thursday’s second semi. The bottom line is simple. (eurovision.com) Israel is still in Eurovision 2026. Bettan got through a difficult semi-final, under pressure, and bought himself one more performance when the audience is largest. (jpost.com) (eurovisionworld.com)