When Austria overtook Israel to win Eurovision last year, it also won the organization of the 2026 edition. In the process, British commentator Graham Norton said on air that the organizers “probably heaved a huge sigh of relief”a sign of an already very tense climate around Israel’s presence in the competition. In the arena, the tension was palpable: some prayed, others cried, and part of the audience chanted “Austria, Austria” at the time of the last points.
Before and during the final, demonstrations had already multiplied. In Basel, hundreds of Protestants draped in Palestinian flags and covered in fake blood denounced the genocide in Gaza. On stage, Israeli singer Yuval Raphael was targeted when two people tried to invade the set by throwing paint. However, despite an average score from the juries, the young woman had dominated the televoting, ahead of all her competitors.
This result immediately aroused doubts among several broadcasters pointing the finger at official accounts linked to the Israeli government, including that of Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on Internet users to vote up to twenty times for Israel, the maximum allowed. According to them, this score reflects less a massive support for the song than an intense mobilization of part of the public in favor of Israel. Some have therefore called for an audit of the voting system, judging that it no longer guarantees a “faithful image of opinion” viewers.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes Eurovision, countered that the results had been independently verified and that there was no evidence to show that voting repeated up to 20 times was misleading. “disproportionately” the ranking, confirming its result. But this near-victory for Israel crystallized an old debate on the impact of the geopolitical context in the votes and on the capacity of the competition to remain above all a musical competition, summarizes the BBC.
A 2026 edition under pressure
For 2026, Eurovision now faces the largest boycott in its history. Five broadcasters – Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland and Slovenia – withdrew in protest against Israel’s participation, while 35 countries remain in the running. Their motivations vary, but several cite the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which has left tens of thousands dead, and accuse the Israeli government of serious crimes – which the latter firmly rejects.
These public channels are generally aligned with governments which have adopted a very critical line towards Israel and have tried, without success, to push the European Union to review its relations with the Jewish state. However, they assure that they have made an independent editorial decision. For them, the presence of Israeli public television Kan and the campaigns considered aggressive around the vote make a competition truly based on the popularity of the songs alone impossible.
Geopolitics never far away
The EBU recalls that Eurovision is a competition between member broadcasters, and not between governments, built on the slogan “united by music”. Historically, however, the competition has never been completely sheltered from international tensions. Boycotts had already taken place, for example between Greece and Turkey in the 1970s, or with Lebanon’s withdrawal in 2005 because it refused to broadcast the Israeli performance. More recently, Russia’s disqualification in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine has reignited debates about the place of politics in spectacle.
Ukraine’s victory in 2022, widely interpreted as a vote of solidarity, has reinforced criticism from some broadcasters, such as Slovenia’s RTV, who say a country at war should not participate, regardless of its status as victim or aggressor. In Spain too, officials are calling for a reform of the EBU statutes in order to exclude from competition countries involved in an armed conflict. For now, however, members have confirmed the traditional rule: any public broadcaster that is an EBU member can participate, which includes Israel and Ukraine.
Faced with accusations of a “massive vote” in favor of Israel and Ukraine, the EBU introduced some adjustments. The maximum number of votes per person has been reduced from twenty to ten, and the organization promises to discourage promotional campaigns deemed disproportionate, particularly when they are supported by governments or their agencies. She even recently sent a warning to the Israeli channel after the broadcast of videos explicitly urging “vote ten times for Israel”believing that it was not in “the spirit of the competition”.
For their part, several presenters say they have had difficulty convincing artists to present themselves this year, with the latter sometimes fearing exposure to strong polarization. As the 70th edition opened in Vienna, Eurovision once again finds itself torn between its ambition to be an apolitical celebration of music and the fact that, faced with the genocide in Gaza and the destruction of entire sections of Lebanon, singing as if nothing had happened is becoming more and more complicated.
