“HaKokhav HaBa” – Episode 2: Five new contestants passed the first audition and advance to the next stage. The successful contestants are: Perfylove Mongoza, Ilay Katz, Hili Goren, Ronen Binder, and Alma Maimon De Razon.

Six days have passed since the premiere episode aired on Sunday (November 10). In the new episode, we witnessed six additional auditions, with five contestants successfully passing and advancing to the next stage, thanks to the support of the judges and the studio audience. One of them could potentially be Israel’s representative at Eurovision 2025.

The judging panel remained the same, featuring Assaf Amdursky, Keren Peles, Shiri Maimon, Eden Hasson, Ran Danker, and Itay Levi. Each contestant needed to surpass a 70% threshold of votes, with each judge contributing 10% of the vote.

Perfylove Mongoza

Perfylove Mongoza, a 22-year-old from Holon, was born in Israel to Congolese parents. Her name, given by her father, means “Perfect Love”. As a model, she believes her unique skin color is an advantage. Perfylove aspires to represent Israel at Eurovision, despite her immigrant background.

Perfylove impressed everyone with her rendition of “Drivers License” by Olivia Rodrigo. She opened the song with the required delicacy, demonstrating impressive vocal accuracy, and later amazed everyone with her powerful and unique voice. Throughout the performance, she effortlessly navigated between low and high notes.

Shiri Maimon commented, “It’s amazing that you’re only now discovering yourself. The fact that you’ve passed could be an incredible opportunity for you to learn, learn, learn, both from the singers around you and from the amazing team behind the scenes because you can really soar here in a good way.”

Perfylove received 92% of the votes and advanced to the next stage.

Ilay Katz

Ilay Katz, a 16.5-year-old from Petah Tikva, comes from a background rich in Mediterranean music. He chose to sing “ABA” (originally by Ben Zur). Despite some minor inaccuracies, Ilay displayed great talent and confidence, hinting at a promising future in music.

Eden remarked, “There’s something incredibly powerful about a 16-year-old singing ‘Dad, fix me’. What’s there to fix? Your delivery doesn’t match your age in any way, and it’s simply unbelievable. The dissonance between how you look with that beautiful smile and the depth of maturity in your delivery, it pierces the heart.” Assaf thought otherwise about Ilay’s readiness: “You sing beautifully; you have a lovely voice. I wasn’t moved to tears. You’re really charming and do everything very well; it was just a bit generic for me.”

Assaf Amdursky voted against him. Ilay received 86% and advanced to the next stage.

Nelly Mira Rubin

Nelly Mira Rubin, a 33-year-old actress and singer, left Israel at 14 for Canada to pursue her dreams. At 25, she returned home heartbroken from lack of success. Last year, she played a lead role inspired by Orly Revivo in the Moses Katsav affair in the series “Aleph”. For her performance in this series, she won Best Actress at the Marseille Series Festival in France and received an award from the Israeli Television Academy for Leading Actress in a Drama Series for 2023.

Nelly chose to sing “A Natural Woman” (originally by Aretha Franklin), delivering a precise performance that showcased her impressive vocal abilities at the end of the song. However, some felt that her song choice was not ideal; while Nelly has a clear and pleasant voice, this song demands more grit.

Assaf, who voted for her, said: “We almost brought you back into music but it ended up feeling like another audition. Actors know this—life is mostly auditions where you hear ‘no’, and every now and then you get to do a great role and win an award for it. I’m sorry it turned out this way because I think you sang beautifully.” Shiri thought differently: “This song is so powerful that it needs to be sung rather than shouted. From start to finish, your delivery felt disconnected; you weren’t really present. It’s clear you’re a singer but it just didn’t work for me.”

Shiri, Ran, and Eden voted against her. Nelly received 62% of the votes and therefore does not advance to the next stage.

Hili Goren

Hili Goren, an 18-year-old from Ashdod, is a Mediterranean singer and granddaughter of Edna Goren, one of Israel’s jazz pioneers. Hili expresses a love for outdoor activities and cycling. She feels committed to giving her all during this difficult time in Israel; if she gets to contribute something meaningful for Israel at Eurovision, she would be very happy.

Hili chose to sing “Im Makhar Ani Met” (originally by Liran Danino), a song written after October 7th that symbolizes the difficult period Israelis are experiencing. Hili has a unique voice that stands out; it’s slightly hoarse but features perfect vocal precision along with brilliant trills and plenty of charisma.

Assaf said: “It’s very impressive to see you in this big event—stressful and slightly exaggerated—and yet you sang so small. You maintained that intimacy in your modest delivery without being tempted to do anything grandiose to impress; that was very mature.” Keren concluded: “You gave space to those beautiful words that essentially ask from beyond for your loved one to be well and find their perfect ending. It’s such a beautiful wish that I’m sure anyone who left us before their time would want; you delivered that text elegantly.”

Everyone voted in favor of Hili. She received 89% of the votes and advances to the next stage.

Ronen Binder

Ronen Binder, a 21-year-old from Netanya studying law, performs old-fashioned songs ranging from Frank Sinatra to Justin Bieber at weddings and other events while singing in 12 languages. He shares that his father initially did not support his choice to pursue music but after three years of challenging relations they reconciled—and now his father is bursting with pride. Ronen stated that his reason for participating in this show is his desire to reach Eurovision.

He chose to sing “Careless Whisper” (originally by George Michael), known as an iconic love song from the ’80s—a grandiose piece filled with pathos and kitsch that many singers tend to avoid like fire. Nevertheless, Ronen delivered an impressive performance showcasing excellent vocal abilities along with perfect vocal accuracy and confidence.

Eden commented: “At first it seemed like you were smiling; I wasn’t sure if you were joking around with this song—it felt somewhat like a joke—but then I realized you’re singing beautifully! You’re precise; you’re good! And when we got to the chorus I understood there’s a real singer here—you’re fantastic!” Ran wondered: “I think there’s an amazing singer here but I have one question: isn’t this just really good impersonation of George Michael? If your next song sounds like another singer again it will raise some big questions.”

Assaf Amdursky voted against him. Ronen received 78% of the votes and advanced to the next stage.

Alma Maimon De Razon

Alma Maimon De Razon, 19 years old from Ramat Hasharon, has always dreamed of pursuing music while singing with the group “Tzeirey Tel-Aviv”. She is set to enlist soon as a casualty officer, a role that involves assisting bereaved families and disabled IDF veterans.

She chose to sing “October Sky” (originally by Yebba), starting off seated at the piano while playing and singing. Her soft voice was soothing; her charming smile combined with perfect delivery made everything work! It seems Alma could definitely surprise us all at Eurovision 2025 because she has everything needed to take first place this season! For me personally—the season has just begun!

Keren said: “It felt like I heard Regina Spektor or Tori Amos or Joni Mitchell—all this music I’ve loved since I was young—there’s everything in you! More than anything else I just imagined this at Eurovision!” Assaf concluded: “You sang beautifully—you managed both delicate airy singing along with powerful notes! There was so much precision in your performance; despite being nervous I could tell you’re very musical.”

Everyone voted in favor of Alma. She received 94% of the votes and advances to the next stage. 

HaKokhav HaBa for Eurovision

In preparation for Eurovision 2025, it has been decided by Israel’s public broadcasting corporation (KAN) to continue its collaboration with Keshet 12 in selecting Israel’s representative for next year’s Eurovision contest. This partnership between Keshet and the corporation has enabled Israel to achieve six consecutive qualifications for finals—most notably when Netta Barzilai won first place with her song “Toy,” bringing Eurovision back to Israel.

Israel in Eurovision 2024

“Hurricane” is the name of the song performed by singer Eden Golan, who was chosen to represent Israel after winning the tenth season of “HaKokhav Haba“. Israel advanced to the final after winning the second semi-final with 194 points, and in the grand final reached fifth place with 375 points. In the public vote, Israel came in second place, just 14 points behind the first place.

This is the second consecutive time that Israel has reached the top five, an achievement it had not attained since its streak of successes in 1998-1999.