Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Just imagine me repeatedly saying that a hundred times. Or more, if you like.
Today, the European Broadcasting Union made the immoral decision to allow Israel to participate in Eurovision 2026, even though that country is still bombing the shit out of Gaza, even though they manipulated the televote with some help from their government in both the past two contests, and even though four broadcasters (RTVE from Spain, AVROTROS from the Netherlands, RTÉ from Ireland, RTVSLO from Slovenia) said they would withdraw from the contest if Israel is allowed in. And these four countries did indeed quit the contest for 2026.
Muchas gracias, RTVE. Dank je wel, AVROTROS. Thank you and go raibh maith agat to RTÉ. And najlepša hvala to RTVSLO for being the first broadcaster to threaten to withdraw. You guys have so much more spine and integrity than the EBU. Fuck the EBU, by the way. Fuck the EBU. Israel’s broadcaster Kan are incredibly fucking selfish as well, to insist on participating in the contest despite how much of a shitshow it would be for everyone else.
I’m at a loss about this decision. It is so obviously wrong on so many levels to do this, and I am pissed off and disgusted at the EBU for doing this. Even if I had a full-time job that could pay for it, I will not go to Eurovision 2026. Not just because the EBU made an immoral decision, but also because I believe there will be a huge amount of protests against Israel participating in 2026, and I would not feel safe being surrounded by so many. I don’t think there will be quite as many protests as there were in Malmö 2024, since Malmö is such a Muslim-heavy city, but there will be a lot nonetheless. I felt very unsafe surrounded by all those protests when I went to Malmö and I’d much rather not go through a repeat of that in Vienna 2026. There would simply be no way to ignore the elephant in the room if I go to the next contest. I have no idea yet if I will even watch the show at all. Maybe I’ll just watch the songs and rank them on my own, and not engage with the Israeli entry at all.
Honestly I’m starting to question why I even went to the contest in 2024, when I knew ever since October 2023, when the war in Gaza began, that Israel participating would turn it into a massive shitshow. I don’t regret going there—I’m glad I got to see all the entries from that contest live (semifinal 1 in a rehearsal, semifinal 2 the live show), and I’m glad I got to meet and make a handful of friends there, except for one person I spent most of the trip with who was a complete asshole to me. I’m similarly glad I went to Eurovision 2025, which was a much happier experience for me, despite the show ending on an extremely sour note where the country that should’ve been banned almost won.
The EBU has such a fucking obvious double standard it’s unreal. Back in 2022, they were quick to ban Russia when only two broadcasters (ERR and Yle) outright said they would not participate if Russia is allowed in. To be fair, there were more that made it clear they felt Russia should not be allowed in, but still, the EBU has a big double standard and is willing to bend backwards to keep Israel participating even if it causes four other countries to leave the contest, probably because they’re scared that if they don’t do that they’ll be called antisemitic.
I’ll say it a few more times: Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU. Fuck the EBU.
Fuck the EBU.
Cookie Fonster's stuff 
I’ve been lurking around here for a while, although I’ve lost a lot of interest in Eurovision since 2024 (largely due to the EBU’s refusal to ban Israel and make any meaningful changes for 2025). Haven’t even heard half the songs from 2025, and only really followed the final voting out of fear that Israel would win.
Utterly appalling (but not really surprising) that the EBU decided to bend over backwards for Israel and threaten the contest’s future. From what I’ve heard they tied the vote for Israel’s participation to the vote for the new rules (max 10 televotes, semifinal juries brought back etc.) failing, which clearly isn’t a fair way to do things.
As an Irish person, I’m so proud of RTÉ for having a backbone and sticking to their word. Us pulling out is the right thing for us to do given the EBU’s (in)action, and it was something I felt like commenting here (but ultimately didn’t get a chance to) right after the 2025 post went up. Can’t imagine too many people here will be upset over it, the amount of people watching the final dropped significantly from 2023 to 2025 and a lot of artists want to keep as far away as possible (supposedly the 6 that made it to the Late Late Show last year were the only passable ones).
I’ll say it again for good measure: FUCK THE EBU!
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Always glad to see a lurker come out of the shadows and comment! RTÉ seemed pretty much silent on the Israel issue throughout Eurovision 2024 and 2025, so it was a welcome surprise for them to put out a firm statement about not participating in the next contest unless Israel gets banned, and to follow through with it. I wonder if things would’ve looked any different if a few more broadcasters showed this level of backbone? It looks like only Iceland is still on the fence, and I’m genuinely not sure what choice they’ll make. Feels like a fifty-fifty to me.
Eurovision 2025 really does have a fantastic song lineup (at least in my opinion) and it’d be a shame to miss out on it entirely. But if you simply don’t want to listen to them all, I understand that.
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Thinking about it, it is probably fair that I listen to the songs (completely ignoring New Day Will Rise like I did Hurricane in 2024), since the artists are of course not the EBU. The whole Israel issue has made me near completely lose interest in the contest and I’ve largely drifted towards other music lately, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to quickly check out some of the songs.
Might check out Benidorm Fest too next year, might help scratch my itch for a similar show.
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I would tell you which entries I recommend listening to from 2025, but you can just read my blog for that. 🙂
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I’ve been thinking about this for the past 24 hours and I think I’m out. I thought I might still watch the live shows, but I just find that I don’t care. It’s kinda poetic, my first show was the 50th anniversary and my last one will be the one before the 70th anniversary.
I’ll still keep all the positive memories of the contest in mind, but I don’t think Vienna 2026 will have anything to offer to me compared to the previous years.
But I might watch Benidorm Fest, we’ll see.
Side note: I’ve been fighting with wordpress for over an hour to leave this comment.
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I don’t blame you for this at all. I have no idea yet whether I’ll watch the next contest either. Also, the wordpress.com comment system is a janky piece of crap.
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Even if I’m not in the right state of mind to weigh in on the big issue surrounding this topic, simply because I’m not in the right state of mind to handle discussing major world events, just so many withdrawals, the horrific drama and negativity and the inevitable further shitstorm of drama and negativity this will bring is enough to just make me thoroughly tired.
My interest in Eurovision has been waning for a while for reasons related to this outcome for the last few years, and I think yesterday’s outcome might have ended my status as an Eurofan entirely. Not sure I want anything to do with a contest ran by an organization that will do literally everything except the right thing
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I don’t blame you for this at all. The EBU are total goddamn idiots. I guess now it’s time to focus on different interests.
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