Eurovision’s runner-up, Noam Bettan has called for everyone to “be kind to each other” on his return to Israel.
Bettan, who just missed out on the top spot for his song Michelle, arrived at Ben Gurion Airport yesterday after a successful trip to Vienna. On his arrival he told reporters: “I know how hard it was to do the Eurovision this year and how many challenges were part of it, but it happened and it happened in the best way I could have asked for.”
“Thank you to all the people of Israel for being here for us for the past few months, for supporting us and giving us love that gave us so much strength, you can’t even imagine.
“I personally felt – as I think many in the country did – a sense of unity, after a long time when such a thing was missing.”
Speaking of the future, Bettan said that he wants everybody to “make the effort to be kind to each other” as well as to try to understand each other and not judge people, adding: “I’ll try very hard to do so myself as well.”
He also thanked his fans and his security team.
Bettan performed his love song in Hebrew, English and French to an estimated viewership of 150 million on Saturday’s show. It earned him 123 points in the jury vote, putting Israel at eighth place on the leader board. He received the maximum 12 points from Poland, ten from Ukraine and ten from Moldova, as well as votes from many other countries – but none from the UK.
But it was when the popular vote began, that Bettan really shone, picking up 220 points for a total of 343. This saw Israel jump to the top spot with only Bulgaria’s DARA and her song Bangaranga, as a possible contender.
DARA ended up receiving a massive 312 points from the public, added to a jury score of 204 to total 516 votes and Israel came second.The UK gave Israel 10 in public vote, and Finland, Switzerland, Germany, Azerbijan and France all gave Israel 12. Five countries boycotted the competition this year in protest at Israel’s involvement.
Michelle was written by Bettan, along with Yuval Raphael – the Nova survivor who came second in last year’s contest – and Nadav Aharoni and Tzlil Klifi. It has become a hit with millions of streams on Spotify.
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