Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands will boycott next year’s Eurovision after Israel was given the all-clear to compete in the 2026 song contest despite calls by several participating broadcasters for its exclusion over the war in Gaza.
No vote on Israel’s participation was held on Thursday at the general assembly of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the body that organises the hugely popular international annual singing competition.
Instead, participating broadcasters voted only to introduce new rules designed to stop governments and third parties from disproportionately promoting songs to influence voters.
It’s hard to classify - no, no one really cares about it, but yet it is a massive event which many people will watch and talk about. It’s not really a song contest, though, it’s more like… a show which is partially about songs, but also about alliances and politics and history. I watch it every year because I enjoy the weirdness and the kitsch-factor and it’s sort of a tradition in a way a commercially run talent show can’t be.