{"id":736111,"date":"2026-08-13T00:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T00:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/736111\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T00:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T00:30:09","slug":"eurovision-song-contest-changes-rules-for-countries-at-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/736111\/","title":{"rendered":"Eurovision Song Contest changes rules for countries at war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest have updated their rules to state that if a country involved in an armed conflict wins the competition, it will be ineligible to host it the following year.<\/p>\n

The amendment was approved by the contest’s governing body, following feedback from participating broadcasters after Eurovision 2026 in Vienna.<\/p>\n

It states that winning countries will also be disqualified from hosting if a “sensitive geopolitical situation” affects the “security, safety or stability of their state or immediate region”.<\/p>\n

The update will be interpreted as a reaction to Israel’s continued presence at the contest, amid criticism of its military actions in Gaza and the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Last November, following a failed attempt to have Israel suspended, five broadcasters announced they were boycotting the competition<\/a> – including Eurovision powerhouses Spain and Ireland.<\/p>\n

Despite the protests, Israel’s Noam Bettan ultimately took second place with his song Michelle. <\/p>\n

It marked the second year in a row that Israel had taken the runners-up position – and some participating broadcasters have privately expressed safety concerns over the contest being staged in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, should the country win in the future.<\/p>\n

Although Israel will undoubtedly be seen as the target of the rule change, it will also affect Ukraine, which has been engaged in a protracted war since it was invaded by Russia in 2022.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra went on to win Eurovision that same year, in a symbolic show of public support.<\/p>\n

Following their victory, Eurovision organisers undertook a “full assessment and feasibility study” to decide whether the 2023 contest could proceed in Kyiv.<\/p>\n

They ultimately decided the security risks were too great, and the UK stepped in to host the competition in Liverpool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest have updated their rules to state that if a country involved in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-736111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736111","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=736111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}