Raphael is the niece of businesswoman Ronit Raphael [he][3] and comes from Ra'anana, Israel. She spent three years of her childhood living in Geneva, Switzerland.[4][5][2] As a youngster, she listened to rock bands such as Led Zeppelin and Scorpions and singers such as Beyoncé and Celine Dion.[6] She began singing professionally in 2023.[7] Raphael was attending the Supernova Sukkot Gathering music festival in Re'im on 7 October 2023, when Hamas-led Palestinian militants attacked the festival, killed 364 attendees, and took 40 people hostage. She hid inside a Death Shelter near kibbutz Be'eri with 50 other people, while sustaining shrapnel injuries from grenades thrown into the shelter by Hamas militants, and was one of 11 survivors, having hid under dead bodies for eight hours.[7][8][9] In a speech before the United Nations Human Rights Council, she described what she witnessed during the attack.[10][11]
On 19 November 2024, Raphael's audition for the eleventh season of HaKokhav HaBa, which served as the Israeli artist selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, aired, where she performed "Anyone" and advanced to the next round with a score of 98%. She eventually progressed to the final on 22 January 2025, where she performed "Dancing Queen" and "Writing's on the Wall".[12] She dedicated her performance of the former to those killed by the Supernova attack. She ranked first and was chosen to represent Israel at Eurovision,[12] succeeding Eden Golan, whose appearance on the previous series had attracted massive controversy as a result of her country's participation in the Israel–Hamas war.[7] At the time of her announcement, she was living in Ra'anana.[13]