For the past two years, amid intensifying controversy over Israel’s participation in Eurovision, I and most other Eurovision superfans have stuck by the contest, despite clear misgivings.
This week, however, as the usual collection of power ballads and jokey songs compete in Vienna, we are not bonding over a common joy, but rather over our shared sense of sadness about the politicisation of the contest. This sadness pales in comparison to the trauma and grief experienced by the people affected by the wars fuelling this politicisation, but it is there nonetheless.
Five countries – Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, Iceland and the Netherlands – have pulled out of Eurovision this year. Their absence is the result of a crisis that has been disastrously mismanaged by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the association of public broadcasters in Europe plus the Middle East and North Africa, that organises the contest.
Eurovision has always had a certain political subtext – that has been part of its appeal. But the EBU crossed a Rubicon when it kicked Russia out in 2022 because of its invasion of Ukraine, which went on to win that year thanks to a public vote reflecting overwhelming political support across Europe.
Once opened, that Pandora’s box has been very hard to close, as the Israel controversy has shown. The EBU has been flailing around in this new geopolitical era, and as a result, Eurovision’s future is under threat.
Like many fans, including some in Israel, I thought the Israeli national broadcaster Kan had the right instinct when it said it wouldn’t take part in 2024. With the war on Gaza raging, the EBU asked Kan and the songwriters of that year’s Israeli entry to change lyrics it perceived as referencing the 7 October Hamas attack. As former Israeli Eurovision contestant Noa said: “I’m always against cultural boycotts. Having said that, I think my own country, if it were up to me, should have sat this one out.”
But Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, intervened, putting pressure on Kan to reverse course and allow the Israeli singer Eden Golan to compete with adjusted lyrics. Israel’s participation over the past three contests has prompted protests and boycotts. But until last year, no European broadcaster had formally asked for Israel’s exclusion and the Eurovision fan community, for the most part, kept watching, even if we were horrified by what was happening in Gaza. We didn’t want to let the contest be defined by the actions of one of its members.
But it wasn’t enough just to be on the Eurovision stage. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has been determined to win, for reasons of soft power. According to a New York Times investigation published this week, the Israeli government has partially funded an ostentatious get-out-the-vote campaign for the past three years, costing at least $1m, which appeared to be urging people to vote for Israel to show their political support.
That campaign included giant billboards in Times Square and direct messages to supporters. Though the US is not in the contest, Americans can still vote because the EBU has opened voting to the whole world. Netanyahu himself posted on Instagram, telling supporters in 2025 to vote 20 times for Israel – the maximum amount allowed per person.
Israel came first in the 2025 public vote across Europe. The public vote makes up half of an entry’s points alongside the votes of professional juries. Last year’s reveal of the winner, usually a moment of high drama and suspense, was a harrowing watch. Possibly thanks to its government’s campaign, Israel was suddenly propelled to the top of the leaderboard. If the professional juries hadn’t given low rankings to what was arguably a passable song, this weekend’s contest would be taking place in Tel Aviv. That would have likely spelled the end of the contest as we know it.
Despite all of this, only minor changes have been made to the voting rules this year. People from anywhere in the world are still able to vote multiple times, whether or not they’re actually watching the contest.
The EBU has found no evidence of hacking or cheating, but it seems implausible that Israel’s unremarkable songs of the past two years so entranced the public that they garnered some of the highest public voting records in the history of the contest. The fact is that under current rules, which mean a few hundred people voting multiple times can easily determine the outcome, political voting is being mobilised. Forget the idea of “boycotts” – people don’t want to watch a contest in which one particular country comes top each year because of this.
Most frustratingly, after the 2024 and 2025 contests, some in the Israeli media suggested that the public vote result was a sign of widespread political support for Israel. Israel’s ambassador to Belgium, Idit Rosenzweig-Abu, declared: “The silent majority has spoken again.” But obviously, if motivated proponents of Israel’s actions all vote for one contestant and opponents have their vote split among all the others, that in no way indicates a “silent majority”.
Eurovision has been one of the great joys of my time in Europe, ever since I moved here as an American 20 years ago. I fell in love with the contest, not only because it’s so much fun, but also because it’s such an anomaly – a wildly successful cultural export Europe produces as a whole with no involvement of the US. That’s why I have attended the show seven times. But this Saturday, like many Eurofans, I won’t be tuning in. I’m not boycotting Eurovision. I simply no longer enjoy watching a contest that feels preordained and no longer about the music.
