In October 2023, when Hamas militants killed over 370 people at the Nova music festival, Yuval Raphael survived by hiding under a pile of bodies. Now, the Israeli woman has been picked to represent her country at Eurovision.

The 24-year-old on Wednesday won the reality TV contest HaKokhav Haba, or The Next Star, earning her the right to represent Israel at Eurovision 2025 in Basel this May.

Raphael performed a ballad version of ABBA’s Dancing Queen during the qualifying competition, dedicating the song to “all the angels” who were murdered during the festival.

In the early hours of October 7, 2023, Hamas fighters attacked approximately 3,000 attendees at the open-air Nova music festival, located two kilometres (about a mile) from the Gaza Strip. 

The militants hunted participants for hours, killing more than 370 people, according to official Israeli data, and taking 44 others hostage.

In her testimony before the United Nations Human Rights Council in April 2024, Raphael recounted that when the rocket fire began, a prelude to the militant attack, she and other festival-goers took refuge in a small bomb shelter.

Soon, Hamas militants were firing inside the shelter, she said.

“Suddenly my world crumbled.. trapped and fearing for my life, I witnessed unspeakable horrors,” she said.

“Friends and strangers were injured and killed before my eyes. When the bodies of those murdered fell on us, I understood that hiding under them was the only way I could survive the nightmare.”

She said only she and 10 others survived in the bomb shelter.

“The physical injuries I sustained are healing but the mental scars will stay with me forever.”

Israel’s participation in the previous 2024 edition of Eurovision held in Sweden was marked by protests against the war in Gaza.

Israeli performer Eden Golan, who was heckled during her performance at the contest, finished fifth at the time.