Eurovision changes voting rules after other countries question Israel’s success
Broadcasters from countries including Ireland and Spain, hostile to Israel's presence in the competition, called for investigations after Israel triumphed in the 2025 public vote
The Eurovision song contest has announced it will introduce rule changes to voting, after a number of country’s broadcasters expressed concern with how well Israel had done in last year’s competition.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) which organises the contest, has now said that the number of votes individual members of the public can cast will be decreased from 20 to 10, and that broadcasters and contestants will be banned from taking part in promotional campaigns by third parties, including governments. Juries, which recently have only been used for the grand final, will now be brought back for the semi-final stage of the competition.
National broadcasters in countries such as Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium and Spain had all questioned the result of last year’s public vote, with Spain and Ireland in particular asking for a full review. Both countries have called for Israel to be boycotted from Eurovision altogether – a step which the song contest has not taken. A vote on the subject scheduled for November was postponed after news of a ceasefire last month; it is not yet clear whether a rescheduled meeting on the subject in December will take place.
Last year, Israel’s contestant in the competition, Yuval Raphael, came second overall after scoring highest in the combined public vote, with countries including the UK, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands awarding Israel the highest number of points from public voting – twelve. Ireland’s voting public gave the country 10 votes. Up until the final minutes of the 2025 contest, Israel looked set to win, until it was beaten into second place by Austria, which won due to a large number of votes from individual country’s juries.
In a statement, Eurovision director Martin Green said that “a lot of feedback from members and our fans” had urged the competition’s organisers to “have a good look at our rules”.
He went on to say that “there was a little fear that we’re seeing some undue promotion particularly by third parties, perhaps governments, that are out of proportion of the rest of the natural promotion that you should see in the show.”
The Eurovision song contest 2026 will be held in Vienna in mid-May.
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