The 2026 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest is celebrating two notable milestones – not only is it the event’s 70th birthday, but it also features the lowest number of competing countries in two decades.
Among the delegations gathered in Vienna for the grand final on Saturday, May 16, five competition regulars will be absent, with Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain all boycotting the event over the inclusion of Israel.
Officials from Spain’s national broadcaster RTVE said in April that it would not participate as the contest’s stated mission of neutrality had become “impossible to maintain”.
“No one raised an eyebrow when Russia was required to leave international competitions and not participate in Eurovision after the invasion [of Ukraine],” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, an outspoken critic of Israel’s policies in Gaza, added in May.
“We cannot allow double standards, not even in culture.”
“It certainly is a rather challenging situation for the organisers of the contest this year,” said Dean Vuletic, historian and author of ‘Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest’.
“This should really have been a huge party, but in the end, we’re seeing fewer participants than ever since 2003.”
‘Under the spotlight’
Eurovision describes itself as a non-political event and performances that contain political messages are not allowed under the competition rules.
But critics say the organisation’s continued inclusion of Israel – which has been accused of committing war crimes including genocide in Gaza – is a political gesture in itself.
“It puts the organisers under the spotlight, and makes people ask what they are doing and how they are thinking,” said Christina Oberg, a professor at Sweden’s Linnaeus University and author of several studies on geopolitical tensions and Eurovision.
Opposition to Israel’s inclusion began in 2024, with the competition falling six months after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched extensive ground operations in Gaza in response to the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel.
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By May 2025 – as ground operations and aid blockades in Gaza continued – calls for Israel to be excluded from the competition grew. They have reached a fever pitch this year, amid new Israeli military operations in Iran and Lebanon.
But anger against the Eurovision organisers may be misplaced, said Vuletic. “The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is not a political organisation. It’s a technical association of National Public Service broadcasters, and it doesn’t have a political mandate to act.”
The decision to exclude Russia from the Eurovision since 2022 over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine was straightforward, as all members of the EBU had shown a united front in imposing international sanctions on Moscow.
“But when it comes to Israel, Europe is divided over how it should respond to Israel’s military actions,” Vuletic added. “For the European Broadcasting Union to make a decision against Israel, it needs a majority of its members to support such a decision, and we’re simply not seeing that.”
‘Playing politics’
This year, Israel will be represented by Noam Bettan with a song called “Michelle” that was co-written by last year’s entrant, Yuval Raphael, and features a chorus in French.
In 2025, Austria won the competition overall, but Raphael, who is a survivor of the October 7 Hamas attack, won the public vote for Israel in the grand final, sparking accusations that the competition was rigged.
In response, Eurovision organisers in November announced a series of reforms to the voting system, such as capping the number of votes per voter at 10.
But, regardless of what happens on stage, Oberg expects a similar dynamic this year, with a strong result for Israel in the public vote tempered by a low score from the competition judges. “Which side is playing politics is difficult to say,” she said.
Spain’s boycott of the competition is significant as it is one of the “big five” countries – along with France, Germany, Italy and the UK – whose public broadcasting services make the largest financial contribution to the production of the competition and, as such, are guaranteed a place in the final.
Should more of the big five join the boycott, it could destabilise the competition financially. It could also raise broader questions about “where we are with the initial idea that led to the Eurovision, to bring collaboration and peace to Europe after the Second World War”, Oberg said.
Although she added that some countries may find it easier to quit than others. “It would never happen in Sweden because Eurovision is such a big deal for us.”
In fact, given the competition’s politically chequered history, it seems unlikely that this year’s boycotts will dent the competition’s reputation too badly.
As far back as 1969, Austria boycotted the Madrid final to show its opposition to dictator Francisco Franco. More recently, Moscow hosted the competition in 2009, in a seeming endorsement of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
“Eurovision has been through many political crises, and it has weathered them all,” said Vuletic, who believes the politics of Eurovision adds to its overall appeal.
“One of the reasons why the contest is so engaging because we like to see how it reflects political issues,” he added. “It is a contest between countries, so it reflects international relations alongside expressing cultural diversity.”
Fans seem to agree. Tickets for this year’s nine final events in Vienna sold out in record time with spots for the grand final snapped up in just 14 minutes.
“To see every single show sell out so quickly is a powerful reminder of what the Eurovision Song Contest represents – joy, togetherness and shared experience at a time when that feels more important than ever”, said Eurovision’s director, Martin Green.
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