7 attack, as well as from soldiers and their families. He said that through her performances, Valerie has been able to bring people together and spread a message of unity and healing during a difficult time in Israel’s history.
As the debate continues about Valerie Hamaty’s role as a non-Jewish contestant on “Rising Star” and her candidacy for Eurovision, one thing is clear: her talent and her ability to connect with audiences of all backgrounds are undeniable. Whether she ultimately wins the competition or not, Valerie Hamaty has already made a significant impact on the Israeli music scene and beyond.
Regenerate 7 attack, saying they had urged her to “stay strong and not let the racist voices get to her.”
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12, Valerie recounted a moving encounter with Shani Goren, who was taken hostage to Gaza and released in a deal with Hamas in November 2023. Goren reached out to the singer, expressing her desire to hear Hamaty sing in Arabic, explaining that she wanted to reconnect with the beauty of the language despite the trauma she endured.
“I don’t want to associate it only with what I went through there,” she said Goren told her. “You’re the only one who can help me see it differently.”
For Hamaty, the moment was transformative. “If this is my mission, and these are the people who have given me their blessing, I have nothing left to prove. Music constantly amazes me — if Arabic triggers fear in some, singing transforms it, reaching their hearts in a different way,” she told the outlet.
Nevertheless, Hamaty said she has no plans to sing in Arabic if she gets the chance to represent Israel at Eurovision. Instead, she plans to sing a ballad in English with some Hebrew — a standard mix at the multinational contest that has recently been dominated by English-language lyrics. She explained that her presence as an Arab on the Eurovision stage already carries the message of diversity.
“The goal is to connect with Europeans, so English is necessary for them to understand, and Hebrew represents Israel, the official language here. The fact that I’m Arab is already part of the story. There’s no need to overstate it.”
Hamaty’s father acknowledged that the war has made hearing Arabic difficult for some Israeli Jews: “There are those who say, ‘With all due respect, we love her and everything, but it’s hard for us to hear the Arabic language right now.’ I can understand that sentiment on an emotional level — I’m not angry with them. In some ways, I even get where they’re coming from. But I don’t agree with them.”
“The people who say they don’t want an Arab woman to represent them are speaking out of ignorance, out of anger,” he said. “If they took the time to do a little research and understood what Valerie has accomplished they might feel differently.”
Valerie, a ninth-generation native of Jaffa and polyglot who speaks five languages, began her education at a French Christian school in Jaffa before transferring to a public school in Tel Aviv, where her musical talent first drew attention. In high school, her music teacher formed a band after hearing her sing, and she was chosen to perform at Memorial Day ceremonies, a notable decision in a country where the solemn day symbolizes the sacrifices of Israel’s almost entirely Jewish army. One performance left such an impression that her head teacher noted it was the first time all 1,000 students stayed through the ceremony, captivated by her voice.
An Israeli soldier places flowers on the graves of fallen Israeli soldiers at the Mount Herzl military cemetery hours before the start of Memorial Day, April 20, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
She participated in the March of the Living trip to Auschwitz and sang at the Knesset at age 16. After high school, she was expected to pursue medicine but chose to study music at the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music. Initially apprehensive about her father’s reaction, she tearfully confessed her decision but to her surprise, Tony said he fully supported her. “I told her if music is her dream, I’m behind her.”
In 2021, Hamaty had a breakout moment: She joined the eighth season of “Rising Star,” coming in second. (That year, the winner got 1 million shekels, or a little less than $300,000, rather than a Eurovision spot.) Since then, she has released several singles and nabbed roles in multiple Israeli TV shows — including “Madrasa,” a drama set in an Arab-Jewish high school written in Hebrew by the Arab Israeli author Sayed Kashua.
Through it all, she has collaborated frequently with prominent Israeli artists, including Noa Kirel, who represented Israel in Eurovision 2023, and Ivri Lider. She also performed in 2022 at the country’s torch-lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl to mark the transition between Israel’s Memorial Day and Independence Day — a day that only a minority of Israeli Arabs celebrate as a holiday.
If she ends up representing Israel at Eurovision in Basel, Switzerland, in May, it wouldn’t be the first time the country uses the competition as an opportunity to showcase its multiculturalism. When Israel hosted the contest in 2019, after winning the previous year, the country’s public broadcaster released a promo video with a self-deprecating ditty sung by an Arab-Israeli personality, Lucy Ayoub, along with Russian-Israeli presenter Elia Greenfeld. “In fact most Israelis have complex identities/that is why we all look at each other here as frenemies,” they sang.
Tony Hamaty was candid about the resistance Valerie has faced from some in the Muslim community. “I have many Muslim friends who raise an eyebrow and ask, ‘Why does your daughter support Israel?’”
In response, he pointed to the indiscriminate brutality of Hamas. “They killed over 30 Arabs, including women in hijabs, showing that they don’t care about religion or nationality. Their ideology is purely about killing every Israeli citizen,” he said. For him, the choice is clear: “We have to stand with the state — we are Israelis.”
He concluded: “If my daughter wins, she’ll show that racism doesn’t have the final word.”
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