{"id":149808,"date":"2025-11-23T15:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T15:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/149808\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T15:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T15:49:09","slug":"eurovision-song-contest-changes-rules-after-israel-voting-controversy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/149808\/","title":{"rendered":"Eurovision Song Contest changes rules after Israel voting controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Eurovision Song Contest<\/a> is changing rules around voting and promotion following the controversy caused by Israel\u2019s result at this year\u2019s competition.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Eurovision 2024 \u2013 fans and boycotters speak: \u201cThis is bigger than the contest\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

It comes after several countries raised concerns and requested an audit after Israel topped the public vote at the contest back in May. Israel finished second overall once the jury votes were taken into consideration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s been announced that voting and promotion rules have been tweaked ahead of next year\u2019s edition in Vienna. \u201cWe\u2019ve listened and we\u2019ve acted,\u201d said Eurovision director Martin Green, per The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>. \u201cThe neutrality and integrity of the Eurovision Song Contest is of paramount importance to the EBU, its members, and all our audiences. It is essential that the fairness of the Contest is always protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans will now only be able to cast 10 votes each \u2014 down from 20 \u2014 and juries will return for the semi-finals for the first time since 2022, meaning there will be a 50-50 split vote between jury and audience votes at the final.<\/p>\n

The number of jurors has been increased from five to seven, all of whom will be forced to sign a formal declaration confirming they will vote independently and impartially. Jurors aged 18-25 will also be added to \u201creflect the appeal\u201d of the contest with younger audiences.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the EBU is also barring its participating broadcasters and artists from \u201cactively\u201d engaging in, facilitating or contributing to promotional campaigns by third parties \u201cthat could influence the voting outcome and, as outlined in the updated Code of Conduct, any attempts to unduly influence the results will lead to sanctions.\u201d<\/p>\n

An investigation by Eurovision News Spotlight \u2013 which is operated by the EBU \u2013 this year found that\u00a0the Israeli government agency had paid for ads and used state social media accounts to urge audiences to vote for entrant Yuval Raphael<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese measures are designed to keep the focus where it belongs \u2014 on music, creativity and connection,\u201d Green added. \u201cWhile we are confident the 2025 Contest delivered a valid and robust result, these changes will help provide stronger safeguards and increase engagement so fans can be sure that every vote counts and every voice is heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Eurovision Song Contest must always remain a place where music takes centre stage \u2013 and where we continue to stand truly United by Music.\u201d<\/p>\n

News of the changes arrives a month after the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) postponed a vote on whether Israel should be allowed to perform in next year\u2019s competition<\/a>. They said that \u201crecent developments in the Middle East\u201d caused it to cancel a virtual meeting to vote on the matter, which was due to take place in November.<\/p>\n

It said Israel\u2019s participation would instead be discussed at an in-person meeting next month, though it did not make clear whether a vote would still take place.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s participation in Eurovision has faced opposition from some other participating countries, including Spain, which became the first of the \u2018big five\u2019 to threaten their absence back in September<\/a>. The\u00a0Spanish Prime Minister called for the country to be banned from Eurovision back in May<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The \u2018big five\u2019 is comprised of the five countries that make the biggest financial contributions to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). These five countries \u2013 Spain, Italy, France, Germany and the UK \u2013 are granted immediate progression to the Eurovision finals every year regardless of their placing in the previous year\u2019s contest, or without clearing the semi-finals. Should Israel participate in 2026, it will mark Spain and RTVE\u2019s first time sitting out since joining in 1961.<\/p>\n

Other countries that have pledged to boycott Eurovision if Israel continues to participate include\u00a0Ireland<\/a>,\u00a0The Netherlands<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Slovenia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the BBC \u2013 the UK\u2019s Eurovision broadcaster \u2013\u00a0has argued<\/a>\u00a0that while it acknowledges concerns raised by Spain and other countries, \u201cEurovision has never been about politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0previous comment to\u00a0<\/a>NME<\/a>, Martin Green told us: \u201cThe EBU is an association of public service broadcasters, not governments. We remain in constant contact with all participating broadcasters of the Eurovision Song Contest, including RTVE in Spain, and take their concerns seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 has concluded, we will have a broad discussion with all participating broadcasters, to reflect and obtain feedback on all aspects of this year\u2019s event as part of our planning process for the 70th Eurovision Song Contest next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to that, over\u00a070 former Eurovision contestants signed an open letter calling for Israel and national broadcaster KAN to be banned from the 2025 contest<\/a>. This year\u2019s winner, JJ,\u00a0has also called for Israel to be banned from the competition in 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s inclusion in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest came despite\u00a0Russia being banned from the contest since 2022 due to its ongoing conflict with Ukraine<\/a>. In 2024, Ireland\u2019s Eurovision entry\u00a0Bambie Thug<\/a>\u00a0was\u00a0also forced to change their pro-Palestine message by the competition\u2019s organisers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unofficial proposals for a solution so far include suggestions that Israel temporarily withdraw from the competition or perform under a neutral flag, per\u00a0Ynet Global<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Eurovision Song Contest is changing rules around voting and promotion following the controversy caused by Israel\u2019s result…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,26173,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-149808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-eurovision","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}