Countries whose security is at risk because of war or “a sensitive geopolitical situation” will no longer be able to host the Eurovision Song Contest, its organizers said on Wednesday as part of a series of rule changes.
The nation that wins the contest usually hosts the next year’s event. Yet the European Broadcasting Union said that a winning nation would not be allowed to do so if it were involved in “an armed conflict, a sensitive geopolitical situation or any other situation materially affects the security, safety or stability of their state or immediate region.”
It did not specify any nations that would be immediately disallowed from hosting Eurovision under the new rules.
And a Eurovision spokesman would not say whether that would include Israel. Any assessment of a country’s ability to host will occur “much closer” to a Eurovision final, he said in an email.
But the move follows years of uproar over Israel’s participation in the competition in which singers, representing countries, compete for votes from the public and juries. Last year, five countries that regularly send artists to Eurovision, including Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands, announced a boycott of the contest over Israel’s involvement given the conflict in Gaza.
Eurovision experts have also long warned that the event would fall apart if Israel were to win while war was being waged in the Middle East, because more countries would refuse to send artists to an event in Tel Aviv.
Since 1973, Israel has been one of the most successful Eurovision nations. It has won four times, and it last hosted in 2019. The country has also performed strongly in the event in the years since the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. In the past two years, it came second.
Dean Vuletic, an author of a book on the political history of Eurovision, said in an interview that the rule change only formalized a previous position.
In 2022, Ukraine won the contest, meaning that it typically would have hosted the 2023 event. But because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the contest was held in Liverpool, England, instead.
“So it is not just about Israel,” Vuletic said, although he added that “Israel is currently Eurovision’s biggest political concern” and that the move by Eurovision’s organizers was probably intended to quell fears around the possibility that Israel could host.
Vuletic said the announcement could appease nations concerned about the effects that an Israeli win could have on the contest, but that “it was unlikely to placate countries or fans who want Israel banned from the event entirely.”
Kan, the Israeli broadcaster that chooses Israel’s Eurovision act, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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