Why This Year's Eurovision Song Contest Has Already Faced So Much Controversy

The event is once again facing calls for a boycott in 2026, with five acts having now withdrawn from Eurovision this year due to Israel's involvemen.

The last two contests have undoubtedly been among the most contentious in Eurovision’s 70-year history – and this year’s event has already proved to be every bit as controversial.

Israel’s continued presence at Eurovision despite the ongoing conflict in Gaza has faced backlash from many critics for some time, with the controversy prompting many of the competition’s key members to pull out completely ahead of this year’s event.

For those who need a quick reminder of what the whole debacle is about, here’s a quick guide to what’s happened so far…

Hang on – first of all, why is Israel even a part of the Eurovision Song Contest in the first place when it’s not even in Europe?

Well, despite what the name might imply, a country doesn’t actually need to be in Europe to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest.

All a country does need is to be a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which Israel’s national broadcasters – first the Israel Broadcasting Authority, and later KAN – have been since the 1970s.

Israel has been competing in Eurovision since 1973, and in that time, it has won on four different occasions.

The most recent victory for Israel was as recently as 2018, when Netta triumphed with her song Toy, resulting in 2019′s contest taking place in Tel Aviv.

Previous Israeli champions have included back-to-back winners Alphabeta and Milk And Honey in 1978 and 1979 respectively, while Dana International made history as the contest’s first transgender victor in 1998.

Interestingly, there have been recent suggestions that Israel could leave Eurovision in the future to compete in the contest’s newly-launched Asian counterpart, though these rumours remain unconfirmed for the time being.

Like Israel, Australia is also a Eurovision contender despite not being in Europe, initially joining the competition as a one-off for its 60th anniversary in 2015, but later returning every year since.

There’ve also been rumblings about Canada joining in the future, though this remains a rumour for the time being.

How far back does the backlash about Israel at Eurovision stretch?

Further than you might think, but the conversation was amplified in 2019, when the competition took place in Israel for the first time in over a decade, prompting calls for a boycott.

This conversation has grown even louder in the last three years as the conflict in Gaza has intensified, leading many critics to call for Israel’s expulsion.

A precedent for this does exist, as Russia was banned from competing at Eurovision in 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine.

What has happened with Israel at the last two Eurovision Song Contests?

In the run-up to Eurovision 2024, an increasing number of fans urged organisers to remove Israel as a competitor, as a result of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Ultimately, Eurovision bosses chose to keep Israel as part of the contest, which led to calls for an overall boycott of the broadcast, which were backed by the Palestine-led BDS movement.

In the UK, Eurovision dropped around a quarter of its viewership in 2024 compared to the previous year’s broadcast, though it’s worth pointing out that in 2023, ratings were higher than usual as the competition had actually taken place on UK soil for the first time in a quarter-century.

Once the 2024 event was........

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