Boycotts and arguments – can the Eurovision Song Contest survive its biggest crisis?
Thursday marked the biggest crisis in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Four countries pulled out over Israel’s continued participation in the competition, and more may follow.
The boycott includes Ireland, which has won seven times – a tally matched only by Sweden – and five-time winner the Netherlands.
Spain, one of the contest’s biggest financial backers, and Slovenia, are also out.
The row exposes a deep rift within the Eurovision family. And it’s a situation that’s been looming for years, amid festering tension over Israel’s conduct during the war in Gaza.
There has also been consternation over the voting and campaigning processes after Israel came top of the public vote this year – finishing second overall after the jury votes were taken into account.
Israel, meanwhile, called the decision to keep it in the contest a “victory” over critics who had tried to silence it and spread hatred.
‘We argued, and we listened’
Thursday’s summit with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) brought the divisions within the Eurovision family to the fore.
There was no direct vote on Israel’s place in Eurovision, but the country’s future participation was effectively tied to a ballot among broadcasters about proposed new rules for campaigning and public voting.
Sixty-five per cent of members of the EBU voted in favour of that change. Ten per cent abstained.
Roland Weissmann, director general of ORF, the public broadcaster in Austria, next year’s host country, said there were heated discussions, but that it was a fair process.
“We argued, and we listened to the arguments of the others, and after that we made a secret vote,” he told the BBC World Service. “That’s democracy, and the majority voted for new, stronger rules by the song contest.”
The result also meant Israel was cleared to compete – but sparked others to withdraw.
According to Spain, the crisis was avoidable. “This point should never have been reached,” said the president of broadcaster RTVE in an angry social media post ahead of Thursday’s summit.
Jose Pablo Lopez said he had lost faith in Eurovision’s organisers, saying they had been swayed by “political and commercial interests”.
He added that organisers should have addressed Israel’s alleged manipulation of the public vote should have resulted in sanctions “at an executive level”, instead of asking EBU members to decide on any consequences.
Israel denies attempting to influence voting at the contest, and says its publicity campaigns were acceptable within Eurovision rules.
More countries to boycott?
Other countries who could join the boycott include Iceland, which said it would not confirm its participation until a meeting of its board next week.
On Friday, Belgium and Sweden, which had been among those also considering their positions, confirmed they would stay in the contest.
Finland said its attendance was conditional on Eurovision securing a “large number” of other participants, adding: “The costs for participating organisations must not increase unreasonably.”
Eurovision author and academic Dean Vuletic told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday: “The next couple of weeks are going to be tense as countries confirm whether or not they’re going to participate in Eurovision next year.
“But I think we will see more boycotts.”
The deadline for countries to confirm their participation is Wednesday, 10 December.
Free speech factor
Amid all the drama, there’s a small detail in the EBU’s press release that sheds some light on why many countries were keen to keep Israel’s broadcaster, Kan, in the contest.
During a “wide-ranging discussion”, it says, fellow broadcasters “took the opportunity to stress the importance of protecting the independence of public service media and the freedom of the press to report, not least in conflict zones such as Gaza”.
That’s because Kan is independent of Israel’s government, and has often found itself at odds with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration.
“Public broadcasters take part, not countries,” ORF’s Mr Weissmann said. “It’s not the government of Israel, it’s the public broadcaster.”
Kan’s association with Eurovision is believed to have protected it from threats of closure or finding cuts – because the government recognises the positive PR power of taking part in the contest.
If Israel had been excluded on Thursday, there’s a future in which the country’s access to a free press could have been imperilled.
Smaller budget
The impact on funding will be a key question for organisers. Spain was one of the “big five” countries who automatically qualify for the final, due to the size of their financial contribution to the staging of the contest.
In recent years that figure has been between €334,000 to €348,000, according to figures published by Spain’s broadcaster, RTVE.
Other countries will now have to pick up that bill – although the costs will presumably be shared between all competitors, with France, Germany, Italy and the UK taking the lion’s share.
And if other countries pull out, the cost for every competing nation will presumably rise.
“To lose some of your biggest financial contributors does have a huge impact, and it also has a ripple-down effect for some of the smaller countries,” according to Jess Carniel of the University of Southern Queensland, a Eurovision scholar.
“So it does probably mean that we might have a smaller show [in 2026], unless the Austrian broadcaster can get together a bit more cash to make sure that it’s still a spectacle.”
Severely wounded
That all means the competition is severely wounded, but the injuries aren’t fatal… yet.
Thursday was “a very seismic day in Eurovision” history, according to Callum Rowe from The Euro Trip podcast.
Fans are “equally up in arms and devastated at what happened”, he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“We’re losing countries that have got an illustrious and storied history in the competition.”
The four boycotting countries won’t change their minds before next May’s contest in Vienna, Mr Rowe said.
“Whether they’ll have a change of heart for 2027 is another question. If they see that Israel don’t perform very well in Eurovision in 2026 they might think, oh, well, the rule changes have done what they were meant to do. But I think it’s difficult to say at this point.”
Eurovision director Martin Green estimates that 35 nations will still take part next year in Vienna.
The loss of four competitors is balanced by the return of three others – Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria – who have skipped the last couple of years.
Not ‘united by music’
The row will cast a long shadow of the contest next year, and probably in future years too.
With much of the music industry throwing its weight behind Palestinian causes, it may prove harder than normal to find artists willing to share the stage with Israel.
The contest hasn’t lived up to its slogan – “United by music”.
But Mr Weissmann insisted he didn’t think the boycott would be damaging for Eurovision as it approaches its 70th anniversary in 2026.
“It was built 10 years after World War Two – united by music – and that’s what is all about.
“It’s a difficult situation all over the world with crisis [and] wars, and now it’s our duty to keep in contact, to listen to each other, to argue – but then find democratic ways to deal with it.”
Right now, however, it’s difficult to see how the ties that were cut on Thursday can be stitched back together.
