The Eurovision Song Contest’s organisers said Friday they were changing voting rules to strengthen “trust and transparency”, following controversy sparked over Israeli candidates.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that it was implementing a range of changes to the voting rules for the glitzy competition ahead of its next edition in Vienna next May, including halving the number of votes each member of the public can cast.
It said it would also set stronger limits on promotion to curb third-party influence, including government-backed campaigns and boost efforts to “detect and block coordinated or fraudulent voting activity”.
The announcement came after several countries, including Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands, threatened to pull out of the 2026 contest if Israel is permitted to take part again.
Others also said they were considering a boycott over the situation in Gaza.
In justifying its decision, Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS highlighted a “serious violation of press freedom” by Israel in Gaza.
And it accused Israel of “proven interference… during the last edition of the Song Contest”, in which it came second, by lobbying the public overseas to vote for it.
“We’ve listened and we’ve acted,” the EBU’s Eurovision Song Contest director Martin Green said in a statement. “We are taking clear and decisive steps to ensure the contest remains a celebration of music and unity. The Contest should remain a neutral space and must not be instrumentalised.” Among the announced changes was the dramatic reduction in the number of votes each member of the public can lodge. Acts competing in the Eurovision annual finals receive two sets of points with equal weight from each of the competing nations: one by a professional jury and one given by viewers voting via telephone, text message or online.
Up to 20 votes have until now been permitted from a single payment method, but going forward that number will be cut to 10, EBU said. The move comes after the past two editions saw the Israeli acts receive little backing from professional juries but a surge of support from the public vote. That catapulted Eden Golan from the depths of the jury rankings to fifth place in Malmo, Sweden in 2024, and Yuval Raphael all the way to second place in Basel, Switzerland, this year.
EBU members were initially scheduled to vote this month on whether Israel would be permitted to participate in Vienna. But after a fragile truce took hold in Gaza, the organisation said they would instead consider the issue during its general assembly in December. EBU said Friday that its members would first consider whether its new measures might remove the need for such a vote.
“We very much hope the package of measures will assure Members that we have taken strong action to protect the neutrality and impartiality of the Song Contest going forward,” spokesman Dave Goodman told AFP. “Only if they consider the new measures are not sufficient will there be a vote on participation.” EBU said that “the full list of participating broadcasters in next year’s competition will then be revealed before Christmas”. If Israel is excluded, it would not be the first time a broadcaster is barred.
Russia was excluded following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, while Belarus had been excluded a year earlier after the contested re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.
Politics is officially barred from the event, but participants are frequently accused of trying to sneak political messages into their acts. EBU said Friday it would also strengthen efforts “to prevent any misuse of the Contest for example through song lyrics or staging”.