{"id":538849,"date":"2026-04-19T04:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T04:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/538849\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T04:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T04:38:19","slug":"spain-will-not-broadcast-2026s-eurovision-song-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/538849\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain will not broadcast 2026’s Eurovision Song Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Flags\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Spain back out of broadcasting the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest. (Georg Hochmuth\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Spain<\/a>\u2019s public broadcaster, RTVE, will not air the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This will mark the first time the show won\u2019t be broadcast in the country since it began participating in 1961.<\/p>\n

This is the latest announcement that throws Eurovision into the spotlight. This year\u2019s contest will be held in Vienna, Austria. This is after Austrian singer JJ<\/a> won last year with his operatic ballad, \u201cWasted Love\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

EurovisionFun<\/a> reported the news on Thursday (16 April), stating the decision was informed by Israel\u2019s continued participation<\/a> in the face of the ongoing, deadly conflict in Gaza. There were also initial reports in late 2025 that RTVE announced it will not participate in or broadcast\u00a0<\/a>Eurovision 2026, though the media focus at the time was mainly on Spain\u2019s decision not to compete in this year\u2019s competition. <\/p>\n

The report details that RTVE officials said the contest\u2019s mission of neutrality had become \u201cimpossible to maintain.\u201d Furthermore, they described the event\u2019s current climate as one of \u201cpolitical distrust.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the furthest measure a country has taken so far in the competition\u2019s largest boycott<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia, and Iceland have also confirmed they will not be partaking in this year\u2019s competition.\u00a0However, despite withdrawing, many of these countries are still expected to broadcast the show. The exception is Slovenia, where broadcaster RTVSLO has confirmed it will not show the contest at all.<\/p>\n

Spain is one of Eurovision\u2019s \u2018big five\u2019 \u2013\u00a0the countries whose broadcasters are the contest\u2019s biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The \u2018big five\u2019, as well as Spain, includes the UK, France, Germany, and Italy.<\/p>\n

The country has withdrawn its funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MelodyMelody represented Spain in 2025\u2019s Eurovision. (Jesus Hellin\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Because of Spain\u2019s boycott of participation and broadcast, the country has withdrawn its funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2025, Spain\u2019s Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun backed the argument that Israel should not take part. Now, Urtasun described RTVE\u2019s move as \u201cbrave.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also noted that, per EurovisionFun, \u201ccultural events should not provide a platform for states involved in ongoing humanitarian crises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the ongoing and mounting criticism of Israel\u2019s participation, the Eurovision semi-finals kick off on 12 May. There will be performances from Moldova, Sweden, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Georgia, Finland, Montenegro, Estonia, Israel, Belgium, Lithuania, San Marino, Poland and Serbia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Germany and Italy, who automatically qualify for the grand final, are also scheduled to perform.<\/p>\n

In semi-final two on 14 May, there will be performances from Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Romania, Czechia, Armenia, Switzerland, Cyprus, Latvia, Denmark, Australia, Ukraine, Albania, Malta and Norway.<\/p>\n

Luxembourg are also scheduled to perform in semi-final two, as are Austria, France and the UK, who automatically get through to the final.<\/p>\n

The UK are pinning their hopes on Look Mum No Computer\u2019s \u201cEins, Zwei, Drei\u201d<\/a>, which is already making history as the first song in UK Eurovision history to not be sung entirely in English.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain back out of broadcasting the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest. (Georg Hochmuth\/Getty) Spain\u2019s public broadcaster, RTVE, will not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,18168,68096,14709,9084,640,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-538849","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-eurovision-2026","11":"tag-eurovision-song-contest","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-spain","14":"tag-tv","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}