The organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest said on Friday that they were tightening the competition’s voting rules to limit the influence of governments on the public poll that helps decide the winner.
The European Broadcasting Union, which stages the contest, did not mention Israel in its announcement. But a wide campaign by Israel’s government urging public votes for the country’s contestant in this year’s contest in May set off a backlash, and the Israeli contestant nearly won the competition after securing the most public votes.
The updated voting rules aim to “discourage disproportionate promotion campaigns,” the European Broadcasting Union said in a news release, “particularly when undertaken or supported by third parties, including governments or governmental agencies.” Eurovision viewers can vote online, via text message and by phone, and the maximum number of votes that a viewer can cast will be capped at 10 by each method, rather than the previous 20, the news release said.
“Promotion is an important part of the music industry and the Eurovision Song Contest but we need to ensure it’s proportionate and fair,” Dave Goodman, a spokesman for the union, said in an email on Friday.
Israel’s presence in Eurovision has been a source of contention since the war in Gaza began after the October 2023 Hamas-led attack. Demonstrators have staged protests over Israel’s participation, and in recent months national broadcasters in countries including Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain have threatened to pull out of Eurovision if Israel is allowed to compete in 2026.
Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Eurovision winner is selected based on two tallies: points allocated by national juries made up of music-industry professionals and points allocated by viewers.
In the changes announced on Friday, the broadcasting union said that the juries will also allocate points during the semifinals, which were previously decided by public votes alone. The number of jurors on each will also be increased from five to seven and will include at least two jurors aged 18 to 25.
Leading up to the 2025 final in Basel, Switzerland, Israel’s government mounted a campaign to encourage votes for the country’s contestant, Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the October 2023 attacks. Israel’s government posted appeals on social media, and the Israeli Government Advertising Agency, which operates under the prime minister’s office, bought YouTube ads encouraging voting, according to Google data.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also got involved, appealing to his 1.5 million Instagram followers to vote the maximum number of times allowed.
After the ensuing backlash, Martin Green, the Eurovision director, wrote an open letter defending the voting process and saying that all forms of voting showed “shows evidence of the motivation of communities or diasporas around certain contestants.”
Eurovision’s organizers have been struggling to resolve the tension over Israel’s participation, and in September the Eurovision Broadcasting Union board said it planned to hold an extraordinary general meeting at which member broadcasters would vote on whether to continue to include the country.
Those plans were altered after the delicate cease-fire between Israel and Hamas went into effect in October. The issue of Israeli participation in Eurovision is now on the agenda for the broadcasting union’s regular December meeting, which will include a discussion on events in the Middle East, Goodman said on Friday.
The overlap of politics has long been an issue for Eurovision, even though since its inception in 1956 organizers have forbidden songs that make political statements, insisting that the competition should unify rather than divide.
In 2021, organizers disqualified Belarus, ruling that its song breached the competition’s rules because it carried a political subtext. In 2009, Georgia pulled out of the contest after refusing to change its song, which was seen as a veiled criticism of Russia. (Russia itself was banned from Eurovision in 2022 over the invasion of Ukraine.) And in 2024, Eurovision fans criticized the song submitted by Israel’s broadcaster as being veiled commentary on the war in Gaza. Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, agreed to change the lyrics to the song, “October Rain.”
Along with the changes announced on Friday, Green said, Eurovision also vowed to “strengthen enforcement of our existing rules to prevent any misuse of the contest for example through song lyrics or staging.”
Next year’s contest will be held in Austria after that country’s contestant, JJ, took home the 2025 title.
Lynsey Chutel is a Times reporter based in London who covers breaking news in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
The post Eurovision Tightens Voting Rules to Tamp Down on Government Influence appeared first on New York Times.
