Four countries – Slovenia, Iceland, Ireland and Holland – have already announced that they will boycotted the next edition of Eurovision Song Contest that will see the final evening on May 16 in Vienna, if Israel will participate, to protest the situation in Gaza. And the list of countries that threaten not to participate risks lengthening again. “We understand the concerns and opinions” regarding “to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East” and the broadcasters “have until mid -December to confirm their participation in the edition of next year in Vienna”, said the director of Eurovision, Martin Green.
“It is up to each member to decide whether or not to participate in the competition and we will respect the decision of any issuer,” he added. The Dutch Avrotros is only the last issuer to have threatened to withdraw from the competition, scheduled in Austria, the winning country this year with JJ, aka Johannes Pietsch.
While the Israeli singer, Yuval Raphael, although among the protests, had conquered second place and even if he had received threats during the performances his story had moved everyone because the young woman on October 7, 2023 had hidden for seven hours in a refuge pretending to be died on a pile of bodies of people assassinated by Hamas.
Already the day after the final, however, the controversy had exploded and there had been a diplomatic incident because the same winner JJ had expressed himself against the participation of Israel in the 2026 edition, then partially apologizing. A few days after the final the first to raise his voice in this sense had been the Spanish premier Pedro Sanchez: Israel should be excluded from international competition, as 3 years ago it was for Russia after the invasion in Ukraine, for “solidarity with the Palestinian people”, he said.
Now last week Ireland, seven times winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, announced its intention not to compete alongside Israel. But also Slovenia, Iceland, and Ireland said they will not participate, while Spain is still evaluating. Already in the past some countries have been excluded from Eurovision, such as Belarus in 2021, after the controversial re -election of President Alexander Lukashenko, and Russia a year later, after invading Ukraine.
The organization of the Eurovision said in July that it has started a consultation with all members of the European Union of RadioDiffusion (EBU), which organizes the singing competition, on the matter. We would have discussed “how we manage participation, geopolitical tensions and how other organizations have faced similar challenges”. These consultations were still in progress, said the Green director on Friday. The Eurovision is the largest live television music event in the world.
The edition of this year in Basel has attracted 166 million spectators in 37 countries. In 2026 in Vienna the stage of the event will be the historic Wiener Stadthalle, who had already welcomed the event in 2015, already in reality hosted in Vienna in 1967. The calendar foresees two semifinals, scheduled for Tuesday 12 and Thursday 14 May, while the final will take place on Saturday 16 May.