With a powerful performance and a captivating voice on the song "Michelle," Noam Batan managed to move the audience and, this year, the jury as well, which accounts for 50% of the score, winning a coveted place among the 10 countries that advanced from the competition's first semifinal. Batan took the stage as song No. 10 and proved that Israel's Eurovision momentum, with its fourth consecutive qualification for the final, remains stronger than ever. The crowd at the Winner Stadthalle arena in Basel cheered, alongside a handful of boos that were drowned out by the general joy.
The evening opened with a country making its comeback to the competition after a one-year absence: Moldova, with the song "Viva, Moldova." After Moldova, the show moved through countries including Sweden, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Georgia, Montenegro, Finland and others, as the audience in Vienna greeted each performance with applause, some of it especially loud for the favorites of the first semifinal evening.
Then came Noam Batan
Then came the moment we had all been waiting for. Batan took the stage with a proud, confident expression, accompanied by the five "Michelles," among them the lioness Lihi Freud, who was injured yesterday during the jury rehearsal and managed to recover in time. Batan was met with applause from the crowd, mixed with a very small number of boos, a sight that has become almost expected, yet still stings every time. Batan did not let anything distract him from the main goal: an excellent, precise performance of "Michelle," filled with emotion, power and vocal control. Three minutes that left everyone in the stands, and at home, deeply moved.
After the contest's interval act, as the production team finished calculating the combined score from the jury vote, which was cast last night, and the public vote, which was cast today, the announcement stage began, the moment when every country waited to hear its name. Only 10 countries won the chance to return to the stage, this time as part of the qualifiers for the grand final, while others were left backstage with heavy disappointment. Excitement in the arena reached its peak: jumps of joy, tears, hugs and painful silences, exactly as is customary at Eurovision, where every song is a dream and every result is a moment of truth.
In addition to Israel, the other countries that qualified for the Eurovision final are Greece, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Moldova, Serbia, Croatia, Lithuania and Poland.
The Eurovision 2026 grand final will take place this coming Saturday night and will be broadcast live on Kan 11 at 10 p.m. Noam Batan will take the stage once again, this time before an audience of hundreds of millions in the arena and around the world, and will try to carry the Israeli flag as high as possible.
