Happy Eurovision (War Is Over): Song contest issues new rules amid conflict

August 14, 2026 — 5:30am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

After a year of behind-the-scenes hand-wringing over the withdrawal of Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia and Iceland from the Eurovision Song Contest 2026, the competition’s organisers have moved to steady the ship. The new rule: any country involved in “an armed conflict [or] a sensitive geopolitical situation” will be unable to host the competition.

Eurovision’s archaic but much-beloved rules hand the hosting of the contest each year to the previous year’s winner. That quirk has turned a win into a diplomatic coup, and the opportunity for more energised countries to engage in a little geopolitical PR.

The new rule is surprisingly loose. It includes this clause: “or any other situation [that] materially affects the security, safety or stability of their state or immediate region”, which means it is open to a wide degree of interpretation.

And while observers cannot fail to see how it immediately applies to Israel, one of the most energised countries in the competition and currently enmeshed in a war in Gaza, it might equally apply to Ukraine, which is defending itself against Russia, or indeed Denmark, should America make good on its promise to invade Greenland.

The rule does not stop a war-affected country from pursuing a Eurovision win, though it might serve as a deterrent if it seems a soft diplomatic victory might never eventuate. After all, participating in Eurovision is costly and........

© The Sydney Morning Herald