By the time Israeli singer Noam Bettan took the stage in the semifinals of the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna on Tuesday night, it was clear that the long-running music competition had been transformed, perhaps permanently.
As he belted out his power ballad Michelle, singing mostly in French, the 28-year-old performer could hear both cheers and jeers. Although for the audience watching on TV, it was hard to make out precisely what was being shouted.
Later, Austrian host broadcaster ORF said four audience members were removed, including for yelling, “Stop the genocide!” Viewers in the U.K. were told by a presenter that some in the audience “let it be known” how they felt about Israel’s participation in the contest.
The contest’s slogan may be “united by music,” but the 2026 installment has been divided over Israel’s participation and its ongoing conduct in the war in Gaza. Five countries — Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Iceland — have all boycotted the event.
A challenge to kick Israel out was rejected by the European broadcasters. But the country’s future participation is bound to remain fiercely contested, particularly if Bettan wins and Israeli broadcaster KAN gets to host Eurovision next year.
Beyond the music
In the past, when geopolitics has clashed with music at Eurovision, it’s typically been the music that prevailed.
The 70-year-old celebration of often-cheesy pop culture, over-the-top ensembles and patriotism mixed with national branding has evolved into the largest live music event in the world. More than 160 million people are expected to tune into Saturday night’s finale, with many casting electronic votes to determine the winner.
Despite the Cold War, ethnic rivalries, Brexit as well as successive debt and migrant crises, the competition to pick the best pop song from across the continent has proven remarkably resilient. Indeed, the contest has expanded beyond the boundaries of continental Europe to include places such as Azerbaijan and Australia. Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has raised the prospect of a Canadian entry at some point.
But this year, while the competition has seemed outwardly sunny and optimistic, the mood behind the scenes has been anything but.
“The European Broadcasting Union has acknowledged that this is the worst crisis that it’s experienced,” said Karen Fricker, a Canadian Eurovision fan and adjunct professor at Brock University who has studied the contest extensively.
Fierce opposition
Israel’s ongoing military response to Hamas’s deadly attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, has left Gaza in ruins and led prominent human rights organizations to accuse Israel’s leaders of inciting a genocide.
Gaza health authorities say more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed, a number widely accepted by the international community. More than two million people rely on humanitarian aid for survival.
Proponents of banning Israel from Eurovision point to Russia as a precedent. It was booted out after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Israel’s government rejects any comparison, framing the war in Gaza as defensive.
Spain’s decision to stay away from Eurovision is especially significant, as it is one of the so-called Big Five countries that foot the lion’s share of the bills for the contest.
In announcing its boycott, Irish host broadcaster RTE referred to “the appalling loss of lives” in Gaza, while Slovenia’s national broadcaster said it would instead air a series of programs called Voices of Palestine.
Iceland and the Netherlands didn’t send contestants to Eurovision but are still broadcasting the event.
Voting irregularities?
While Gaza is the primary driver of anti-Israel sentiment, it’s not the only controversy for Eurovision organizers. There are also questions about Israel’s alleged efforts to tip the scales in favour of their entrants.
Over the course of the contest, juries from Eurovision member countries cast votes for the acts they support. So can members of the public, although they are blocked from voting for their own country. The final results are split 50/50 between juries and the public.
The New York Times reported earlier this week that in 2025, social media accounts linked to the office of the Israeli prime minister urged audience members across Europe to use all 20 of their allowable online votes to support Israel’s entry, Yuval Raphael, who ultimately ended up finishing second.
Leveraging government resources in an attempt to sway audience voting isn’t permitted under Eurovision rules.
The Times also reported that Israel spent more than $1 million US on Eurovision marketing to try to enhance Israel’s “soft power.”
After last year’s contest, the voting rules were changed to cut the number of votes audience members can cast down to 10.
The change doesn’t appear to have put an end to the controversy. Earlier this week, Israel’s public broadcaster received a warning from Eurovision organizers after KAN posted social media pleas for Europeans to use all 10 of their online votes to support Bettan.
Accusation of smear campaign
Israeli officials have accused their critics of conducting a smear campaign. The country’s minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Anti-Semitism released a long statement on the eve of the semifinals condemning the boycotts.
The ministry said it was acting pre-emptively “against incitement and antisemitic incidents surrounding” Eurovision. It listed a succession of events it said were being planned to discredit Israel and invoke hatred against Jewish communities outside the country. The statement claimed this included “digital activity, targeted pressure on artists, visual propaganda and organized protests.”
The statement went on to accuse “European governments and public bodies” of providing a “tailwind” to incitement against Jews and that Eurovision has become a “stage for the lies of radical Islam” that Israel claims is threatening the continent.
In Austria alone, Israeli authorities allege in the four months preceding the Eurovision event, it has identified more than 39,500 antisemitic posts on X.
Eurovision 2026 is happening at the same time this year that Palestinians mark Nakba Day, which commemorates when more than 700,000 Palestinians either fled or were forced to flee after the state of Israel was founded in 1948.
‘Toxic’ environment
While the current five-country boycott is the largest in Eurovision history, it’s not entirely unique. In 1970, four Nordic countries and Portugal staged a boycott to protest the voting system, which they claimed disadvantaged smaller countries.
Israel has also been the target of other boycotts, including by Lebanon in 1970, which cancelled its participation in the contest rather than airing a performance that featured an Israeli singer.
What makes the 2026 boycott different is the broader geopolitical context, says Fricker at Brock University. She says narratives around global conflicts are now being fought on the airwaves, on social media and in public spaces. That makes it inevitable that events such as Eurovision will become part of a larger battlefield.
“I don’t think we should underestimate how toxic an environment the Eurovision space has become,” she told CBC News.
Other long-time watchers, however, downplay the controversy over Israel’s participation.
“I think it’s inevitable because Eurovision always reflects the political zeitgeist of the time,” said Eurovision historian Dean Vuletic, a frequent U.K. media commentator on the event.
‘Europe’s largest election’
He also says the criticisms raised over the voting process are not unique to this year’s event, nor to Israel, and that it’s fairly standard for organizers to make adjustments as new voting technologies arise.
“This is Europe’s largest election and actually since 2023, when people all around the world have been allowed to vote,” he told CBC News Network. “That makes it an exciting experiment in public democracy.”
Spanish economist Juan D. Moreno-Ternero, who has studied Eurovision voting patterns, believes organizers have responded appropriately.
“This criticism is scientifically unfounded,” he said. Whether you give people 20 votes to support their favourite musical acts, as was the case previously, or 10 votes, with the new changes, it’s unlikely to make much of a difference in who wins.
“There’s nothing wrong [with] letting people vote more than once. So we have this whole idea that it’s one person, one vote — but that doesn’t need to be democracy at its best.”
Bettan, the Israeli singer, will sing in the final after surviving the semifinals and a vote by both national juries and the public. The big test for the voting system, and for Eurovision, will be what happens on Saturday night.
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