Israel: 4 Finalists Remained in The Race For Euorvision 2026

Israel will select its Eurovision 2026 artist via “The Rising Star For Eurovision 2026” (“Hakohav Haba Shel Israel La’Eurovision 2026”).
Israeli national broadcaster Kan collaborates with the commercial channel Keshet 12 for the 9th year on the Eurovision project.

As the semi-final concluded, 4 artists qualified for the final:

  1. Noam Bettan
  2. Gal De Paz
  3. Shira Zaluf
  4. Alona Erez

The grand final of “The Rising Star For Eurovision 2026″ will be held on Tuesday, January 20th, 2026.
4 artists will qualify for the grand final. The format will be as follows:

  • In the first round, 4 artists will compete in 2 battles. The winner of each battle will be determined by online live voting of the public and the jury panel.
  • The winner of each battle will get a direct ticket to the super-final.
  • The public will have the right to choose the 3rd super-finalist out of the 2 artists who will lose in the battle.
  • In the second round, the three super-finalists will each perform an additional song. A weighted vote from the studio jury, a secondary jury, and the public will determine the winner



However, the song will be selected internally. Kan has already opened the submission window for the internal selection:

Israel’s Song Selection For Eurovision 2026 – Known Details

  1. The submission window opened on December 21st, 2025, and will close on January 26th, 2026.
  2. The song writers must hold Israeli citizenship. However, one of the composers/producers can be foreign.
  3. The song must feature at least 2 sentences in Hebrew.
  4. Songwriters whose song has been selected for Eurovision for 2 years in a row can’t submit a song.
  5. Songwriters who are in charge of songs representing other countries in Eurovision 2026 will be banned.
  6. The selection promotes fair competition and therefore encourages songwriters to submit their songs performed by anonymous performers (and even using AI tools). In particular, the performer can’t be one of the songwriters.
  7. Each songwriter/composer can submit up to 2 different songs.
  8. Submissions will be made online via Kan’s website
  9. Kan has the right to directly approach songwriters to submit songs.
  10. Once the submission window closes, a preliminary committee will shortlist the songs. The committee will feature representatives from Kan, including musicians, TV personalities, and more. They will shortlist up to 40 songs.
  11. The main committee will then examine the shortlisted songs. The committee will be based on representatives of Kan, Keshet 12, the public and music industry experts.
  12. The main committee will pick a handful of songs to be recorded by the Israeli artist for Eurovision 2026, and make a final decision based on them.
  13. Kan will reveal the Israeli song for Eurovision 2026 at the beginning of March 2026.
  14. The full regulations can be found here

Israel will compete in semi-final 1 of Eurovision 2026 (May 12th, 2026).
The country will perform in the second half of the show.

Eurovision 2026 will be held in Vienna, Austria, on May 12th, 14th, and 16th, 2026.

Doron Lahav is 30-year-old, who lives in Israel. Doron has been watching the Eurovision Song Contest since early 2000s. Doron works as a Data Scientist and shows interest in singing and writing.

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