Israel has been represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 48 times since its debut in . The current Israeli participating broadcaster in the contest is the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC/). Israel has won the contest four times, and has hosted it in Jerusalem in and , and in Tel Aviv in .
Israel's first appearance in the contest in 1973 was successful, with "" performed by Ilanit finishing fourth. Israel then achieved victories in and , with "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta, and "Hallelujah" by Milk and Honey. In , the Israeli broadcaster declined to host the contest for a second consecutive year due to financial reasons. Because the contest date in the Hague conflicted with , Israel did not participate. This remains the only instance of a winning country not competing the following year. The country's best results in the 1980s were second-place finishes for "" by Avi Toledano in and "" by Ofra Haza in . Israel achieved its third victory in , with "Diva" by Dana International. To date, Israel holds the record for the most participations and the most wins in the contest without finishing last, but it has placed second-to-last in the final thrice—, , and —and received no points from the juries in 2019.
Since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Israel has failed to reach the final seven times. In , "" by Shiri Maimon gave the country its tenth top-five result, finishing fourth. After failing to qualify for the final for four consecutive years (2011–14), Israel reached the final in with "Golden Boy" by Nadav Guedj finishing ninth, and the country has participated in the final every year since with the exception of , while also recording a fourth win in with "Toy" by Netta.
Israel's participation in the contest has been subject to numerous controversies, mostly due to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the wider Arab–Israeli conflict. Tensions around the country's presence have significantly escalated since the Gaza war which began in October 2023.
History
The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), making it eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. It had participated in the contest, representing Israel, since the in 1973. In 2017, the IBA was succeeded by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC/), which has been responsible for Israel's participation in the contest since the following year.
To date, there have been four Israeli victories in the contest. Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta won in Paris in with "A-Ba-Ni-Bi". On home ground in Jerusalem , Israel won again, this time with "Hallelujah" performed by Milk and Honey. Unusually, Israel did not defend the title in 1980 Eurovision, eurovision.tv (see below). The third victory came almost 20 years later in Birmingham in , when Dana International took top honours with the song "Diva". It took a 20-year wait for Israel to record its fourth victory at the in Lisbon, with the song "Toy" by Netta, earning Israel its highest-ever score of 529 points.
Israel's earliest selections were picked by the IBA. The first singer to represent the country was Ilanit, who finished 4th in . In 1972, while Ilanit was in Germany recording as part of the duo Ilan and Ilanit with her partner Shlomo Tzach, the duo received an offer to represent in . Since Israel was eligible to participate, they approached the IBA with a proposal that Ilanit would represent Israel. However, the registration period was over by then and Ilanit was told she could represent Israel in 1973.ימים טובים, ימים רעים: אילנית פותחת פה על המדינה ועל נינט Sagi Ben-Nun, 27 April 2012, Makor Rishon ללכת שבי אחריה Yuval Abramovich, 16 April 2013, Israel HaYom After she was sent again four years later, it was decided that henceforth the winner of the Hebrew Song Festival would represent Israel. The 1978 and 1979 Israeli Eurovision winners were selected by this method. From 1981, the selection process took place via the with the exception of 1990, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2002, when the IBA selected its representatives internally.
After winning the contest in 1978 and 1979, the IBA was financially and logistically unable to organise the event for a second consecutive year. The Netherlands agreed to host the 1980 contest in Israel's place. The date chosen for that year's contest coincided with Yom HaZikaron, Israeli Memorial Day, so Israel could not compete. This made Israel the only country to date unable to defend its title. The 1980 winning song "Pizmon Chozer" by The Brothers & the Sisters never had an opportunity to compete.
In 1984, Israel again refrained from participating due to the same date conflict. It was rumoured that Ilanit and the song "Balalaika" would have been its representative that year, but this was denied by Shlomo Zach, the producer of the song.
Israel's entries have had a mixed reception. Avi Toledano () and Ofra Haza () scored well with big revivalist numbers, but the all-singing, all-dancing style became less popular later in the decade and Israel's entry, "Yavo Yom" by Moti Giladi and Sarai Tzuriel, came in 19th.
In , Israel finished 8th with "Shir Habatlanim" by the satiric duo Lazy Bums. Then-Israeli Minister of Culture, Yitzhak Navon, said he would resign if the song went on to represent Israel at the contest; this ultimately did not occur.
In , Rita's "" was not well received, but in , Orna and Moshe Datz finished third, Israel's best result since 1983. Israel also had a 5th-place finish by Eden when it hosted the . Ping-Pong's disco effort in failed, though the group was noted for their optimistic lyrics and message of reconciliation and peace. They waved Syrian flags at the end of their performance, angering some Israelis.
In , David D'Or came 11th in the semi-final with "", leaving Israel out of the final for the first time since 1997. Shiri Maimon with "" in brought Israel back to the top five, and ensured Israel a place in the final, where it was represented by singer Eddie Butler, who had finished 5th as part of Eden in 1999; however, his performance of the song "Together We Are One" finished 23rd, with only four points.
IBA's Eurovision committee chose Teapacks to represent Israel in . Their humorous entry "Push the Button" finished 24th out of 28 in the semi-final and did not advance to the final. As a result, Israel had to compete in the semi-final, from which it advanzed to the final, where Boaz and "The Fire in Your Eyes" finished ninth. In , for the first time, an Arab citizen of Israel represented the country: Mira Awad performed "There Must Be Another Way" alongside Jewish-Israeli singer Noa in Moscow. Israel was represented in 2010 by Harel Skaat, who came 14th in the final with "Milim".
Israel's participations from 2011 to 2014 were less successful, as former Eurovision winner Dana International in Düsseldorf, the band Izabo in Baku, Moran Mazor in Malmö, and Mei Finegold in Copenhagen all failed to qualify for the final. The 2014 non-qualification led to Kdam Eurovision being discontinued, and the IBA later partnered with Keshet to use the existing reality singing competition to select the Israeli artist—a method that has mostly continued since—though the song selection has gone through various formats. In 2015, Nadav Guedj brought Israel back to the final with "Golden Boy", the first Israeli entry without a Hebrew lyric. Before Netta's win, Israel also managed to qualify in 2016 with Hovi Star and "Made of Stars", which finished 14th, and in 2017 with Imri Ziv and "I Feel Alive", which finished 23rd. In 2019, as hosts with Kobi Marimi and his song "Home", Israel was pre-qualified for the final and finished 23rd, making it the fourth time since 2015 that the host country ranked in the bottom five.
In 2020, Eden Alene was chosen to represent the country with "Feker Libi". After the 2020 contest was cancelled, she was retained as the Israeli representative for , this time with "Set Me Free", which finished 17th in the final. The song features a B6 whistle note, the highest note in the contest's history. Michael Ben David, selected through The X Factor Israel, represented Israel in 2022 with "I.M," but failed to qualify for the final. Internally-selected Noa Kirel finished third in 2023 with "Unicorn", Eden Golan placed fifth in 2024 with "Hurricane", and Yuval Raphael and Noam Bettan both finished second with "New Day Will Rise" in 2025 and "Michelle" in 2026, respectively.
Participation overview + Table key 1 First place 2 Second place 3 Third place ◇ Entry selected but did not compete † Upcoming event
Year Artist Song Language Final Points Semi Points Ilanit "" Hebrew 4 97 rowspan="18" colspan="2" Poogy "" Hebrew 7 11 Shlomo Artzi "" Hebrew 11 40 Chocolate, Menta, Mastik "" Hebrew 6 77 Ilanit "" Hebrew 11 49 Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta "" Hebrew 1 157 Milk and Honey "Hallelujah" Hebrew 1 125 "" Hebrew 7 56 Avi Toledano "" Hebrew 2 100 Ofra Haza "" Hebrew 2 136 Izhar Cohen "" Hebrew 5 93 Moti Giladi and Sarai Tzuriel "" Hebrew 19 7 Datner and Kushnir "" Hebrew 8 73 Yardena Arazi "" Hebrew 7 85 Gili and Galit "" Hebrew 12 50 Rita "" Hebrew 18 16 Duo Datz "" Hebrew 3 139 Dafna "" Hebrew 6 85 "" Hebrew, English 24 4 colspan="2" Liora "" Hebrew 8 81 colspan="2" Galit Bell ◇ "" ◇ Hebrew ◇ colspan="2" 28 12 Dana International "Diva" Hebrew 1 172 rowspan="6" colspan="2" Eden "Happy Birthday" Hebrew, English 5 93 PingPong "" Hebrew 22 7 Tal Sondak "" Hebrew 16 25 Sarit Hadad "Light a Candle" Hebrew, English 12 37 Lior Narkis "Words for Love" Hebrew 19 17 David D'Or "" Hebrew, English colspan="2" 11 57 Shiri Maimon "" English, Hebrew 4 154 7 158 Eddie Butler "Together We Are One" English, Hebrew 23 4 colspan="2" Teapacks "Push the Button" English, French, Hebrew colspan="2" 24 17 Boaz "The Fire in Your Eyes" Hebrew, English 9 124 5 104 Noa and Mira Awad "There Must Be Another Way" English, Hebrew, Arabic 16 53 7 75 Harel Skaat "" Hebrew 14 71 8 71 Dana International "Ding Dong" Hebrew, English colspan="2" rowspan="4" 15 38 Izabo "Time" English, Hebrew 13 33 Moran Mazor "" Hebrew 14 40 Mei Finegold "Same Heart" English, Hebrew 14 19 Nadav Guedj "Golden Boy" English 9 97 3 151 Hovi Star "Made of Stars" English 14 135 7 147 Imri "I Feel Alive" English 23 39 3 207 Netta "Toy" English, Hebrew 1 529 1 283 Kobi Marimi "Home" English 23 35 colspan=2 Eden Alene ◇ "" ◇ English, Hebrew, Arabic, Amharic ◇ colspan="4" Eden Alene "Set Me Free" English, Hebrew 17 93 5 192 Michael Ben David "I.M" English colspan="2" 13 61 Noa Kirel "Unicorn" English, Hebrew 3 362 3 127 Eden Golan "Hurricane" English, Hebrew 5 375 1 194 Yuval Raphael "New Day Will Rise" English, French, Hebrew 2 357 1 203 Noam Bettan "Michelle" French, Hebrew, English 2 343 1 269 Confirmed intention to participate † Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest Artist Song Language At Congratulations At Eurovision Final Points Semi Points Year Place Points Dana International "Diva" Hebrew colspan="2" 13 39 1 172
Songs by language
SongsLanguageYears45Hebrew, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 25English, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3French, , 2Arabic, 1Amharic
Hosting
YearLocationVenuePresentersPhotoJerusalemInternational Convention CenterYardena Arazi and Daniel Pe'erDafna Dekel, Sigal Shachmon and Yigal RavidTel AvivExpo Tel AvivErez Tal, Bar Refaeli, Assi Azar and Lucy Ayoub
Awards
Marcel Bezençon Awards YearCategorySongComposer(s)PerformerFinalPointsHost cityPress Award"Milim" Tomer Hadadi (m) and Noam Horev (l)Harel Skaat1471 OsloArtistic AwardComposer Award
Winner by OGAE members YearSongPerformerFinal resultPointsHost city"Toy"Netta1529 Lisbon
Related involvement Conductors