{"id":579569,"date":"2026-05-12T09:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/579569\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T09:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:24:11","slug":"israel-takes-the-stage-in-semis-of-boycotted-eurovision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/579569\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel takes the stage in semis of boycotted Eurovision"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year marks the 70th edition of Eurovision, the world’s biggest live televised music event which despite the razzmatazz rarely escapes the politics in the background.<\/p>\n

Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip prompted five countries to withdraw from the glitzy annual extravaganza: Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Iceland, with the first three refusing to broadcast this week’s contest at all.<\/p>\n

Eurovision director Martin Green vowed Monday to do “anything in our power to find a pathway back” for them.<\/p>\n

\"Noam<\/p>\n

Noam Bettan is representing Israel at the ESC this year with the song ‘Michelle’ \u00a9 Tobias SCHWARZ \/ AFP <\/p>\n

The withdrawals mean 35 countries are taking part this week — the fewest since entry was expanded in 2004.<\/p>\n

The number would have been even lower but for Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova rejoining the fold.<\/p>\n

Pro-Palestinian activists are planning to demonstrate on Tuesday by placing coffins in the centre of Vienna.<\/p>\n

In a statement, they lamented that “despite its crimes, Israel has the opportunity to be celebrated this week in Vienna as a democratic and peaceful rainbow nation”.<\/p>\n

The withdrawals were triggered by the Gaza war, but broadcasters also raised suspicions that the public televoting system was being manipulated to boost Israel at Eurovision 2025 in Basel, Switzerland.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, some broadcasters voiced concerns about media freedom, with Israel preventing their journalists from accessing Gaza.<\/p>\n

\"Johannes<\/p>\n

Johannes Pietsch, known as JJ, won the Eurovision 2025, earning Austria the right to host this year’s song contest \u00a9 Tobias SCHWARZ \/ AFP <\/p>\n

Amichai Chikli, Israel’s diaspora affairs minister, said a “sharp and coordinated surge in antisemitic and anti-Israel discourse surrounding Eurovision 2026” had been detected.<\/p>\n

“This situation is a direct continuation and result of the conduct of European governments and public bodies, which choose, in a hypocritical and weak manner, to boycott the competition.”<\/p>\n

Finnish flamethrowers<\/p>\n

Thanks to operatic singer JJ’s victory in Basel with “Wasted Love”, Austria is hosting for the third time, having staged the 1967 and 2015 contests.<\/p>\n

\"Finland's<\/p>\n

Finland’s Linda Lampenius (R) and Pete Parkkonen, with the song ‘Liekinheitin’, are hotly tipped to do well at Eurovision \u00a9 Tobias SCHWARZ \/ AFP <\/p>\n

Fifteen acts representing their countries will compete in Tuesday’s semi at the Wiener Stadthalle, with 10 going through to Saturday’s grand final.<\/p>\n

The front-runners to qualify are Finland, Greece, Israel, Sweden and Croatia.<\/p>\n

Finland’s Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen are the overall Eurovision favourites with “Liekinheitin”, or “Flamethrower”.<\/p>\n

“We are so much into the music and what we are doing in the numbers, so that’s what we are actually always going for: the feeling. It has to come from here: from the heart,” violinist Lampenius told AFP.<\/p>\n

\"Lion<\/p>\n

Lion Ceccah is representing Lithuania in the first semi-final with the song ‘Solo Quiero Mas’ \u00a9 Tobias SCHWARZ \/ AFP <\/p>\n

Israel’s Noam Bettan will perform “Michelle”, a song in Hebrew, French and English.<\/p>\n

San Marino, Georgia and Belgium could struggle to go through, according to bookmakers.<\/p>\n

“The only stress I put on myself is to want to do things well,” Belgium’s entrant Essyla told AFP.<\/p>\n

Moldova opens the show at 1900 GMT, returning to Eurovision after missing last year’s event.<\/p>\n

Coffee house inspiration<\/p>\n

Semi-finals were introduced in 2004 and give acts the chance to establish themselves with viewers before the grand final.<\/p>\n

Fifteen more acts compete in Thursday’s second semi, with 10 going through.<\/p>\n

This year, the semi-finals will be decided by public vote and also by professional juries, back for the first time since Turin 2022, in a bid to assuage fears over televote manipulation.<\/p>\n

Alongside Eurovision major financial backers Britain, France, Germany and Italy — hosts Austria have guaranteed spots in Saturday’s 25-country final.<\/p>\n

\"Vienna<\/p>\n

Vienna City Hall reflected in the sunglasses of a Eurovision fan in the Austrian capital \u00a9 Tobias SCHWARZ \/ AFP <\/p>\n

Eurovision 2026 executive producer Michael Kroen said they had drawn on classic Viennese coffee house culture to build the show.<\/p>\n

“The creativity and the intellectuality was based in the coffee houses, and very great people lived in Vienna at the same time and created a lot of good stuff for the world,” he told reporters on Monday.<\/p>\n

“This was our inspiration and we’re trying to uphold this story… and present you modern Vienna.”<\/p>\n

Each competing country has a dedicated coffee house in the city for fans to congregate at.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2026 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year marks the 70th edition of Eurovision, the world’s biggest live televised music event which despite the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-579569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579569","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=579569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}