One of my weekly fixes is the Israeli television show Rising Star, in which singers compete for the right to represent Israel at the Eurovision song contest (and presumably compete against at least one anti-Israel freak in the process).
The frontrunner in the show is one Valerie Hamaty, an insanely beautiful Christian Israeli Arab with an insanely beautiful voice – and beautiful soul.
What this touching clip does not show is the full extent of Valerie’s beauty, which her performance with the son of two October 7 victims gets close to showing:
One of the most emotionally arresting was a duet performed with another contestant, Daniel Wais. Wais’s father, Shmulik, was killed on October 7 in their home in Kibbutz Be’eri as he tried to defend his wife, who was kidnapped, brought to Gaza and later murdered. Her body was eventually recovered by the IDF.
Just before filming the episode, Wais had come from his parents’ reburial, moved from temporary graves to the kibbutz cemetery now considered safe enough for a proper funeral.
During the show, Wais shared that he and Hamaty had competed against each other in a talent competition before the war. His father, who attended that event, had told him afterward that he needed to find a way to perform with her someday. Reflecting on the duet, Wais said, “When I realized we’d be singing together on ‘Rising Star,’ I got goosebumps.”
The two sang “Hurricane,” the song performed by Eden Golan, who represented Israel in last year’s Eurovision. The song, which referenced those murdered on Oct. 7, had its lyrics and title altered after Eurovision organizers deemed it too political.
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In their rendition, Hamaty and Wais incorporated lyrics from the original version, titled “October Rain.”
Goosebumps.
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.
And last week, she brought along to the show one of her good friends, a Jewish man with payot (sidelocks), further showing what a special soul she is.
Valerie singlehandedly destroys so many of the lies aimed at Israel – and I hope she is given the chance to also do that at Eurovision.
