KAN, the Israeli national broadcaster, has unveiled the mechanism it will use to determine the 2026 Israeli Eurovision act.
KAN has opted for HaKokhav HaBa once to more to select its Eurovision hopeful. Israel will be determing the 2025 Israeli Eurovision act via HaKokhav HaBa aka’The Next Star’, the show is broadcast on Keshet Media Group’s Channel 12. The said show has been used many times to select the Israeli Eurovision acts: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 (2021), 2024 and 2025.
- 2015- Nadav Guedj (9th)
- 2016- Hovi Star (14th)
- 2017- Imri (23rd)
- 2018- Netta (winner)
- 2019- Kobi Marimi (23rd)
- 2020- Eden Alene (contest was cancelled)
- 2021- Eden Alene (17th)
- 2024- Eden Golan (5th)
- 2025- Yuval Raphable (2nd)
KAN has a sealed a deal with Keshet for yet another year for organizing its national selection for Eurovision. Hereby the Israeli broadcaster will be saving the hefty costs for preparing for the competition and production costs.
This will be the 9th time that KAN and Keshet 12 will be collaborating together in order to determine the Israeli Eurovision act.
The 2026 Eurovision Song Contest will be broadcast on KAN 11, KAN Box, KAN App and KAN’s radio networks.
Israel at Eurovision
Israel debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973 and has won the competition four times ( 1978, 1979, 1998, 2018). The country has hosted the event thrice: twice in Jerusalem ( 1979, 1999) and once in Tel Aviv (2019). Israel has partaken 47 times in the competition.
In 2025 Yuval Raphael represented Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest in Switzerland with her entry ‘New Day Will Rise’ achieving an honourable 2nd placing in the Grand Final.
https://youtu.be/_7zHp51j2WM?si=Da_HNdOCGGUpl9u_
