Yuval Raphael is Israel’s contestant for Eurovision 2025.
The Eurovision Song Contest is famous for celebrating everything from cross-dressed ballad singers to heavy metal bands wearing monster masks. But geopolitics threatens its 70th anniversary edition.
More than 1,000 artists this week called for a boycott of the 2026 edition Eurovision, and several countries have already announced that they will stay away in protest against Israel’s participation.
Just eight years ago, in Lisbonin an edition in which the festival for the 4th time, a competition managed by European public television stations, featured artists from 43 countries.
But in this year’s edition of the contest, on May 16, only 35 countries will compete for the first prize in Vienna — the edition with the smallest number of participants in recent years, notes .
Although Israel’s presence constitutes a particularly complex challenge this year in the current international political context, the world’s largest live music event has long been intertwined with politicsexperts say.
A Hungary abandoned the contest in 2020a decision interpreted as being linked to his political line increasingly conservative — which may be reversed after the elections on the 12th, but not in time to allow the country to participate.
In 2021, the Belarus suspended for cracking down on press freedomeaa Russia was expelled after the invasion of Ukrainein 2022. Meanwhile, other countries, including North Macedonia, have withdrawn in previous years invoking financial difficulties.
“Slow death”
The sanction applied to Russia created a precedent and triggered “a debate”consider Christina Öbergauthor of several studies on how Eurovision became, against its will, a stage of geopolitical tensions.
Some ask, says Öberg, “Why didn’t they do the same with Israel?not being allowed to participate in the contest”, given the enormous number of civilian casualties resulting from Israel’s bombing of Gaza over two years.
Five television stations, including Spanishare expected to boycott the 2026 edition due to Israel’s participation. It’s a unprecedented gesture by one of the “Big Five”, as Eurovision jargon designates the five largest financial contributors, who benefit from automatic qualification for the Grand Final.
Iceland, ““, the Netherlands, Belgium and Slovenia also decided not attend the next edition for the same reason, complaining that the political neutrality of the event was no longer guaranteed.
In September, Salvador Sobral considered that if Israel maintains its presence. “Genocide has been declared; Israel cannot sing circus songs at Eurovision”, highlights the winner of the 2017 edition of the festival.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 musicians from around the world signed a petition under the motto “” (no music for genocide) to exclude Israeli public television KAN, considered “accomplice” in the “crimes” committed by Israel.
Among the signatories are renowned artists and bands such as Massive Attack, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters and Sigur Rós.
But for several reasons. event organizer, the European Broadcasting Union (UER), has defended KAN in the past, arguing that it meets all independence criteria.
The EBU also announced changes and safeguards to the voting system public, following accusations of manipulation in favor of the Israeli candidate last year.
If more television stations give up, it will be “a kind of slow death… because it takes a certain number of countries to continue to feel that this is for everyone”, says Öberg, professor at Linnaeus University, in Sweden.
Under the spotlight
Austria, host of this year’s edition, considers that any cultural boycott is “stupid and useless“.
However, in reality, it was Austria itself that paved the way by boycotting the 1969 edition in Madrid, “because of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco“, recalls the Croatian-Australian Eurovision historian Dean Vuletic.
Eurovision continues to be an important instrument of promoting inclusion and tolerance, and analysts agree that it has always been more than a song contest.
The artists parade under the flags of their countries, and the event is broadcast live across Europe, providing a remarkable platform, amplified by social media.
And with 166 million viewers counted in the 2025 edition, the Financial interests are high for Eurovisionwhich has become a brand to protect.
“When the EBU began to attract sponsorsat the end of the 1990s, producing merchandising, installing the competition in larger venues and selling tickets to the public, it also began to take measures to avoid any damage in the image of the competition”, declared Vuletic to AFP.
But geopolitics in Eurovision also sometimes work. in the opposite direction: this year, “Denmark will be in the spotlight in a way that has never happened before,” he says. Lisanne Wilkenfrom Aarhus University, Denmark.
“The situation with Greenland and the US president Donald Trump put Denmark even more on the map,” notes Wilken.
Trump’s strident claims to Denmark’s Arctic territory have sparked a wave of concern and resistance in Europe — and experts predict that the country’s representative, Søren Torpegaard Lundyou may benefit from a wave of empathy.
