‘Stop Questioning Her’: American Music Executive Trashes Doubters of Israel’s Historic Showing in Eurovision

Eurovision officials are putting to rest allegations that the unprecedented display of public support for Israel’s contestant, Yuval Raphael, which helped propel her to second place overall, was somehow fraudulent or manipulated. The director of the Eurovision Song Contest, Martin Green, defended the integrity of the competition’s results, insisting that “the Eurovision voting process is the most advanced in the world” and that “each country’s results are checked and verified by a huge team of people to rule out any suspicious or irregular voting patterns.” The final scores for the contestants — who, this year, competed in Basel, Switzerland — reflect a combination of votes from both national audiences and professional juries. Mr. Green noted that an “independent verification device checks both the jury and public voting data to ensure a valid result.” Ms. Raphael finished in second place overall after her Saturday performance drew 297 points from the audience vote — the most of any of the 26 finalists. The 24-year-old rising star from Ra’anana captured hearts with her impassioned ballad, “New Day Will Rise,” and her harrowing backstory of surviving the Nova Festival massacre by Hamas on October 7, 2023. However, some critics doubted that Ms. Raphael’s impressive public vote result — which is being reported as the highest public vote in the competition’s history — was legitimate. After Ms. Raphael received the maximum 12 points from Spain — whose prime minister has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza — a Spanish broadcaster, RTVE, called for Eurovision officials to publish a breakdown of the country’s voting data. Belgium’s Dutch-language broadcaster, VRT, requested an investigation as well, expressing similar shock to the country’s overwhelming support for the Israeli contestant. “We have no indications that the points count was not done correctly, but we are asking for full transparency from the EBU,” a spokeswoman for VRT, Yasmine Van der Borght, said Monday after Ms. Raphael received 12 points from Belgium. “The question is whether the current voting system guarantees a fair reflection of the opinion of the viewers and listeners.” Mr. Green specifically took aim at Spain’s concerns in his statement, noting, “There is no suspicion of bias or irregularities in the awarding of points — not even in relation to the full score given to Israel by Spanish viewers.” Despite the strong televoter support in Spain and Belgium, the juries for both countries refrained from awarding Ms. Raphael any points. Ms. Raphael’s meager result in the jury vote — 14th place with 60 points — led her to narrowly lose out to Austria’s contestant, JJ, who clinched first place for his operatic ballad, “Wasted Love.” JJ received 436 points while Ms. Raphael clocked in at 357. The pre-event favorite, Sweden, came in fourth place. Doubts over the legitimacy of Ms. Raphael’s Eurovision success prompted music professionals to come to the Israeli pop star’s defense. An American music executive, Scooter Braun, who helped kickstart the careers of major stars like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and more, took to Instagram to chide Ms. Raphael’s critics for spreading unfounded conspiracy theories. “Yuval won the audience vote. Have any of you ever made a huge superstar globally? I don’t think so,” he said in a video uploaded on Instagram. “So what makes you think that you know what the public wants?”Mr. Braun continued by praising Ms. Raphael — “a girl who survived the Nova massacre, who had her life almost taken away while she was celebrating in a music festival” — for having the courage “to go on stage and sing a song about overcoming those odds and a song about there being another day to live and live in love and peace, and a video that represents that.” He concluded his rebuke by calling on skeptics to “stop questioning her and question your own taste. Because the public spoke and you should listen to them. And a new day will rise.” Ms. Raphael, who attended the Nova festival with a group of friends, was huddled in a roadside bomb shelter when a group of Hamas terrorists opened fire on the dozens of young people piled inside, killing many of them and wounding the young singer. Ms. Raphael played dead in the shelter for eight hours until she was rescued by the father of another partygoer. Her song, which includes lyrics like, “New day will rise, life will go on,” is generally interpreted by Israelis as a tribute to overcoming the horrors of Hamas’s attack. Given the competition’s strict no-politics policy, however, she was careful not to draw any direct connection with the Nova Festival during her performance. The Israeli pop singer’s impressive Eurovision showing came despite two separate attempts by protestors to rush the stage. Both individuals were stopped by security and arrested before they could disrupt the competition. Ms. Raphael, meanwhile, is relishing her second-place showing. “I’ve never felt so victorious before in my life,” she told Israeli media on Sunday. “I feel like we’ve won at life. I don’t know how to explain it. I’ll be grateful for this situation every day of my life, I’ll be grateful for our nation every day of my life.”She also took the opportunity to sing the praises of Austria’s JJ, whom she applauded as a worthy victor. “He has incredible vocals. He worked extremely hard, I’m very proud of him,” she said. “He deserves it.”

‘Stop Questioning Her’: American Music Executive Trashes Doubters of Israel’s Historic Showing in Eurovision

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