Somewhat surprisingly, Valerie Butter, one of the most prominent and intriguing contestants in the current season of "The Next Star," began singing on a trip to Poland in high school.
Whoever was the only Christian Arab student in her class in high school who participated in the journey, did not imagine that it was precisely there that her professional fate would be determined.
"It was very important to me to embark on this journey, and it was immediately clear to me that I was joining," she recalls.
"This is a horrific event in every sense of human history, and it must not be repeated. I live here, with the people for whom it happened. Being in Poland, where everything happened, is much more powerful. Being with my friends, some of whose family members perished in the Holocaust."
Did your joining elicit comments?
"The teachers and the management encouraged me and supported my departure, and I thank them for that, but there were also students who clicked and for whom it did not go smoothly."
Before the trip, the school was looking for the singer to conduct and lead the ceremonies in Poland.
Her classmates pressured her, though until that day she had not sung in public - and the task was assigned to her.
"It was the first time I actually sang in an official forum, and I didn't want to sing at all. The girls pressured me and told the teachers, until I agreed."
Valerie (21) is a ninth generation in the country, speaking Hebrew, English, Arabic and French ("many are surprised by the French name, but all our family members have more European names").
Her father, Tony (51), manager of a tapas bar restaurant, and her mother, Raymond, a tax advisor.
She has a 16-year-old twin brother and sister, Jireis and Aline.
"In all sorts of places, and for all kinds of people, there is a stigma about Arabs, and one of the reasons I wanted to be exposed was to break it," she shares.
"Arabs with a heavy accent, who look a certain way and dress a certain way, only study with each other and don't quite know how to talk. But for me it has never been like that."
In an interview, she talks about the decision to study music at "Rimon" despite her parents' opposition.
"We have a very clear path: finish school, do a degree, get married, have a first child, and then a second child. We are not allowed to breathe. But I, since I remember myself, have not liked being put in patterns. I have something in me that wants to rebel and not To go after the herd. "