Last year, when Austria won the Eurovision Song Contest, earning the right to host this year’s contest in Vienna, British viewers heard contest commentator Graham Norton say that the organizers were relieved that Tel Aviv would not have to host the contest, writes the BBC.
The 2025 contest was marked by widespread protests. At a demonstration in Basel, Switzerland, several hundred people carried the Palestinian flag and smeared themselves with fake blood, symbolizing the killings in Gaza. During the grand final, two people tried to attack Israeli singer Yuval Raphael, throwing paint at her, which hit a representative of the contest team.
The atmosphere in the stadium was very tense – people prayed and some cried, and the word “Austria” was chanted as they awaited the results. If the crowd didn’t want Israel to win, the audience vote showed otherwise. Rafael received a mediocre rating from the jury, but was the leader in the audience vote. Several broadcasters later questioned Israel’s results, pointing out that social media accounts affiliated with the Israeli government (including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) had posted calls to vote for the Israeli representative the maximum allowed 20 times. The broadcasters argued that the audience vote result was more the result of mass voting than real audience support. The Israeli government has repeatedly stated that such statements are an international smear campaign.
Some broadcasters wanted an audit. There were also calls to review the voting system, which has been unchanged for many years, to ensure a fair reflection of the views of viewers and listeners. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) responded by saying that the voting had been verified by independent experts and that
there was no evidence that voting for one artist up to 20 times would disproportionately affect the result.
Israel’s near-victory brought to light a debate that had been simmering behind the scenes for years about the impact of geopolitics and conflict on Eurovision voting. Israel first entered Eurovision in 1979 and has won the contest four times since.
Eurovision is currently facing its most widespread boycott in its 70-year history. In 2026, 35 countries will take part in the contest, but broadcasters in Spain, the Netherlands, Iceland and Slovenia have withdrawn in protest at Israel’s permission to participate in Eurovision. The reasons for each country’s decision vary and are not always clear. Some have said they are boycotting the 2026 bid to protest military action in the Gaza Strip. Other broadcasters have said Israel is committing genocide, a claim Tel Aviv has vehemently denied.
It should be noted that most broadcasters boycotting the event are taking their stance in line with their own national politics. Some governments have been outspoken in their criticism of Israel. In April, politicians from Spain, Slovenia and Ireland unsuccessfully tried to have the European Union suspend trade relations with Israel. The broadcasters insist, however, that they made their decisions independently.
Broadcasters have previously expressed concerns about Israel’s inclusion in the contest,
but none have withdrawn from the 2024 and 2025 contests. As calls to boycott Eurovision grew louder, Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar said that Eurovision is a celebration of music, culture and the unity of nations, not a platform for political points-scoring. He called the boycott shameful and hypocritical.
Politics, however, has undoubtedly always been at the heart of the Eurovision vote. Friendly countries have regularly given each other the highest marks. Despite the EBU’s claims that last year’s voting was fair, some broadcasters believe that Israel’s presence and the voting methods it used mean that Eurovision cannot be a true music popularity contest. The sense of injustice over last year is so strong that some have suggested that geopolitics may have an impact on the voting, but that no country involved in a war should be allowed to participate in Eurovision. It has even gone so far as to suggest that Ukraine should be barred from participating in order to protect a fair vote.
The question is whether Eurovision should rewrite its rules, and whether this will create more problems than it solves.
Eurovision is not a competition between governments,
but a competition in which broadcasters who are members of the EBU participate. Consequently, the boycott announced by several broadcasters is not a country-specific one, but a stand-off by independent broadcasters against the participation of Israel’s public broadcaster KAN. Eurovision has also never been completely free from political influence. Dean Vuletic, author of the study Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest, noted that some countries have historically used participation in the contest to show the end of international isolation and demonstrate values oriented towards Western society. This goes back as far as 1961, when Spain began participating in Eurovision, or as far back as Yugoslavia, which was the only Eastern European country to participate in Eurovision during the Cold War.
Eurovision has also previously reflected conflicts between countries. In 1975, Greece boycotted the contest after Turkey invaded Cyprus, and in 1976, Turkey did not participate. In 2012, Armenia refused to participate because of a conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Lebanon was due to make its Eurovision debut in 2005, but its legislation made it almost impossible to broadcast Israel’s performance, so Lebanon withdrew after the EBU demanded that the entire contest be broadcast. Morocco’s only Eurovision appearance was in 1980, when Israel did not participate.
This year’s boycotts raise questions about whether the ERA can shield the contest from geopolitical issues.
Natalija Gorščak, the president of the board of Slovenian broadcaster RTV, told the BBC that RTV had received a lot of objections from Eurovision fans who said Slovenia should not be on the same stage as Israel. RTV’s position as a public broadcaster is to fight for peace.
Icelandic broadcaster RÚV said before announcing its boycott that it had serious doubts about KAN and the Israeli government’s handling of the contest’s rules. Dutch broadcaster Avrotros has accused the 2025 contest of political interference and said its participation would go against the organisation’s values.
It could be argued that the five broadcasters who have announced their boycott are themselves using the contest for political purposes to send a message to the Israeli government.
Two broadcasters are talking about excluding Ukraine from the contest,
and others are known to have voiced similar ideas behind the scenes.
Broadcasters and musicians participating in this year’s contest are not allowed to publicly disclose any information that could damage the reputation of Eurovision.
Yuval Rafael, who was chosen to represent Israel, is one of the survivors of the attack on the 7th of October, 2023. The EBU confirmed that the musician met all the requirements of the contest, including not being involved in politics. However, Gorščak believes that while the song was not directly political, it was symbolic, and the choice of the performer was also symbolic: “We still think it was political, even if by the rules of the EBU it was not political.”
Social media posts associated with the Israeli government complied with the rules, and politicians from other countries have also called for votes for their country’s representatives, but critics have pointed out that Israel’s actions were different and stood out among the rest. The EBU has sought to address the concerns of Gorščak and other broadcasters by reducing the maximum number of votes per viewer to ten. The association said it does not support disproportionate advertising campaigns, especially when they are carried out by third parties, including governments and government agencies. Over the weekend, KAN was issued a formal warning about calls to vote for the Israeli representative ten times. Before the start of the contest on the 12th of May, the EBU called on KAN to delete the relevant content from its social media accounts, which the broadcaster had done. The contest organizers said they would continue to monitor the situation and, if necessary, take appropriate action.
Some link the current tension to the decision in February 2022 to bar Russia from the contest
after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At the time, the EBU decided that Russia’s participation would damage the reputation of the contest. There are currently no Russian broadcasters among the EBU participants. That year, the Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra won the contest, whose members were allowed to leave Ukraine for the duration of the contest. The Ukrainian victory was widely celebrated, and the contest organizers have indicated that there were no violations of the rules in 2022. However, Slovenian RTV believed that many voted for Ukraine out of political solidarity, thereby threatening the status of Eurovision as a song contest.
Spain also agrees with the Slovenian view that warring countries should not participate in the contest.
EBU members agreed last year to maintain the 70-year-old rule that any member of the association can participate in the contest, which means that both Ukraine and Israel can nominate their own participants.
KAN has previously indicated that if it is disqualified, the consequences will be far-reaching for both the contest and the values of EBU.
Eurovision officials have stressed that for 70 years the contest has provided a platform to showcase the importance of peace and unity in a divided world, but now it appears that some broadcasters believe that the world’s most-watched entertainment event is no longer a fair competition. Representatives of several broadcasters have said that it has been more difficult to find musicians willing to participate this year, and there is talk that artists do not want to damage their reputations.
As final preparations are underway, Eurovision has once again found itself in a situation where it cannot fully focus on the songs, pyrotechnics, stage, choreography, glitter, fun and parties, and instead faces new petitions and protests. The rules state that the contest must not be used as a platform for political expression, activism or the raising of external issues, but now the question is coming to the fore: what kind of song contest will Eurovision be if more and more countries, broadcasters, artists and viewers see it not as a celebration that stands above politics, but as a contest shaped by politics.
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