Israel’s delegation to the Eurovision Song Contest 2026, led by singer-songwriter Noam Bettan, departed for Vienna on Friday, the Jewish state’s Kan public broadcaster said.

A send-off event attended by Bettan, top Kan officials and executives from flag carrier El Al—which is serving as the delegation’s official airline for a fourth consecutive year—was held at Ben-Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv.

“I am very happy and excited to represent our beautiful country in Europe’s biggest music competition, on the world’s biggest stage,” Bettan said in a statement before boarding. “It’s a great privilege and responsibility, and I will do everything to represent with honor.”

Betan is scheduled to compete in the first semifinal on Tuesday, May 12. A second semifinal will take place on May 14, with the grand final on May 16.

He will represent the Jewish state with the song “Michelle.” The ballad, with lyrics in Hebrew, English and French, was written and composed by Nadav Aharoni, Tslil Klifi and Yuval Raphael, the country’s 2025 Eurovision representative and a survivor of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

The son of French immigrant parents, Bettan, 28, from the central city of Ra’anana, was nominated as Israel’s contestant after winning the finale of the “HaKokhav HaBa” (“The Next Star”) TV competition in January.

He began his musical career during his compulsory military service and first gained national attention in 2018 after coming in third in the musical reality TV competition “Aviv or Eyal.”

In 2024, Bettan released “Pokeach Einayim,” based on lyrics by Israel Defense Forces Staff Sgt. Yaron Oree Shay, a soldier from the Nahal Brigade who was killed fighting Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel was cleared to compete in Eurovision after other broadcasters abandoned a proposal to bar its participation, following reforms intended to enhance the event’s “transparency and neutrality.”

Broadcasters of Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain announced that their countries would skip the musical event in protest of the European Broadcasting Union’s decision to allow Israel to participate.

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