Slovenia, which backed out of this year’s Eurovision in protest of Israel being allowed to compete, announced this week that it would also not air the contest on its public broadcaster.
The country pulled out of the 2026 competition last year along with Spain, Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlands, following a vote by European Broadcasting Union members which cleared the way for Israel to remain in the contest.
Slovenia’s RTV said Thursday that it also would not be airing the competition, which is slated to be held next month in Vienna.
“We will not be broadcasting the Eurovision Song Contest,” Ksenija Horvat, RTV Slovenia director told The Associated Press. “We will be airing the film series ‘Voices of Palestine,’ featuring Palestinian documentaries and feature films.”
In a post on the RTV website, the broadcaster said between May 10 and 20 it will air a number of films, including the Oscar-winning “No Other Land” and the Oscar-nominated “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” as well as several discussion programs designed to “shed light on people’s stories and the broader context of current events in the Middle East.”
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Spain’s RTVE and Irish broadcaster RTE said already last year, when they pulled out of the competition, that they would also not be broadcasting the contest. The Netherlands’ AVROTROS also said it wouldn’t air this year’s show, although the country’s public broadcasting system said it would air in the country on a different one of its channels.
People react as they watch the votes being counted during the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest being screened at a community center in Tel Aviv, Israel, early on May 18, 2025. (Maya Levin / AFP)
Earlier this month, Iceland’s public broadcaster RUV confirmed that it will still air this year’s competition. Eurovision is uniquely popular in the Nordic country, with the annual song contest’s grand final drawing in 97.8% of its TV-viewing public last year.
The European Broadcasting Union geoblocks the YouTube stream of the annual contest from non-participating member countries, though it is not clear if it will do so for the countries that have withdrawn.
Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands announced their boycott of this year’s competition after leading a call to push for a vote on Israel’s participation. In the December vote, an overwhelming majority of EBU members, however, voted in favor of adopting a package of reforms aimed at alleviating concerns, instead of pushing for an Israel-specific referendum.
Under the reforms, votes per person will be capped at 10, rather than 20; the EBU will “discourage” governments from running public campaigns for their entrants, and bar contestants from coordinating with such campaigns; and professional juries will be brought back for the semifinal rounds, in conjunction with the popular vote.
Despite the exit of those five countries, 35 nations are still set to compete at the 2026 competition in Vienna, which kicks off with the first semifinal on May 12.
Israel will be sending singer Noam Bettan, who will perform “Michelle” in French, English and Hebrew on the Eurovision stage.
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