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Israel Releases ‘New Day Will Rise,’ to Be Performed by Yuval Raphael in 2025 Eurovision Song Contest
Yuval Raphael in the music video for her new song “New Day Will Rise.” Photo: YouTube screenshot
Israel debuted on Sunday night the full song that Yuval Raphael will perform in the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, this May.
Israel’s Kan 11 premiered during a live broadcast the music video for “New Day Will Rise,” a powerful ballad written by singer-songwriter Keren Peles that has mostly English lyrics but with some French and Hebrew as well. Yuval, 24, lives in the Israeli city of Ra’anana — same as Noa Kirel, Israel’s representative in the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest – but lived as a child with her family in Switzerland for three years. She is fluent in Hebrew, English, and French.
Raphael sings in the chorus: “New day will rise/ Life will go on/ Everyone cries/ Don’t cry alone/ Darkness will fade/ All the pain will go by/ But we will stay / Even if you say goodbye.” The song has a Hebrew line from the biblical Song of Songs, which translates to: “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.”
Raphael survived the Nova music festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, in Re’im, Israel, after hiding from Hamas terrorists in a roadside bomb shelter. She pretended to be dead and laid under dead bodies for several hours until she was rescued. Terrorists killed 370 people and abducted 44 hostages at the site of the festival.
In the music video for “New Day Will Rise,” Raphael and a group of young people gather together to sing, dance, and enjoy each other’s company in a grassy area, which is reminiscent of what young Israelis did at the Nova music festival before the Hamas-led Oct. 7 onslaught. Red anemones, Israel’s national flower and the flower that is known for growing specifically in the southern region, are seen in the grass in the music video.
In mid-January, Raphael won the Israeli television singing competition “HaKochav Haba” (“Rising Star”), whose winner goes on to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest.
“Throughout the season of ‘Rising Star,’ I chose songs solely from a place of emotion, as soon as I felt a twinge in my stomach,” Raphael told Kan 11. “When I heard this song [‘New Day Will Rise’], I had a twinge in my stomach and said – ‘This is your song.’” She also commented on the song’s connection to her surviving the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
“One of the most exciting things that has happened to me in my life is the very extreme transition from the most terrible event of my life on Oct. 7, to such a great and empowering moment – representing my country at Eurovision. The feeling of personal victory is immense,” she said.
The lyrics and the video for “New Day Will Rise” has been approved by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the Eurovision Song Contest. Last year, Israel’s original song submission, “October Rain,” was rejected by the EBU for being too political since it referenced the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Kan ultimately rewrote the song and titled it “Hurricane.” It was performed in the Eurovision by Eden Golan, who finished fifth place in the competition.
Israel has been competing in the Eurovision since 1973 and won four times — in 1978 with Izhar Cohen’s “A-Ba-Ni-Bi,” 1979 with Milk and Honey’s “Hallelujah,” 1998 with Dana International’s “Diva,” and most recently 2018 with Netta Barzilai’s “Toy.”
Raphael will compete in the second semifinal of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest on May 15 and, if she advances, will compete in the grand final on May 18.
Watch the music video for “New Day Will Rise” below.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
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