As the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 is approaching fast, I'l opening a new general discussion thread to bundle all kinds of general conversations, like your favourite songs, staging suggestions, rankings or predictions. :)
The article describes Israels success in 2025 (campaigned mass votings, "mobilisierte Blockvotings.")
Die EBU will das ESC-Voting reformieren. Zuschauer sollen künftig online für drei Favoriten stimmen. Damit will die Rundfunkunion mobilisierte Massenabstimmungen für einzelne Länder verhindern.
https://www.n-tv.de/leute/ESC-Publikumsvoting-soll-komplett-umgekrempelt-werden-id31196622.htmlOpen linkView original on piefed.social
Moroccanoil will no longer be sponsoring the Eurovision Song Contest from next year.
The Israeli brand had been a primary sponsor of Eurovision since 2019, the same year the contest took place in Tel Aviv.
However, on Thursday, organisers announced that the haircare company had pulled its sponsorship after six years.
“We can confirm that, after six successful years, Moroccanoil has chosen not to renew its sponsorship of the Eurovision Song Contest,” a Eurovision rep said, adding: “We wish Moroccanoil every success for the future.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/eurovision-sponsor-moroccanoil-israel_uk_6a7ed1cde4b081b49e2cb4a5Open linkView original on feddit.orgFrom 2027, the winning broadcaster will automatically be ineligible to host the following Eurovision Song Contest if an armed conflict, a sensitive geopolitical situation or another situation materially affects the security, safety or stability of the country or its immediate region.
If the winning broadcaster is unable to host, the EBU will appoint an alternative Host Broadcaster.
The EBU has also clarified the rules regarding live vocals and pre-recorded elements.
The main principle remains unchanged: The Lead Singer or Lead Singers must perform the main melody live.
Backing tracks and pre-recorded elements can still be used in accordance with the rules, but the lead vocal must be the only element performing the main melody.
From 2027 all artists must be at least 18 years old on the day of their first rehearsal.
The rules concerning the Semi-finals have also been clarified. Qualification is now described as being primarily determined by the audience vote, including the Rest of the World vote. The rules also allow jury points to be included alongside the audience vote in the Semi-finals, subject to approval by the Reference Group and using a ratio determined by the EBU.
You can also watch the streams of the National Finals on Youtube.
The country will be represented by CBC/Radio-Canada, Canada’s national public broadcaster, which recently became a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
Canada will compete in the Semi-finals and becomes the first new country to join Eurovision since Australia in 2015.
This is especially important as there is an EBU General Assembly coming up next month and Belgian broadcaster VRT has announced that they are trying to force a vote that could have implications for Israels participation:
We are asking for an objective framework like other international organizations have: what are the conditions for a country to participate, and what are not conditions? That is currently lacking.
https://thateurovisionsite.com/2026/05/29/vrt-open-discussion-israel/
Filling out the survey might give VRT more power to actually get the vote to the floor.
The public broadcasters of three European countries, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia, on Monday, announced that they would boycott the 70th Eurovision Song Contest by not airing it.
The song contest has been at the center of controversy with several countries calling on Eurovision's organizers to exclude Israel following the Gaza war.
https://www.dw.com/en/slovenia-spain-and-ireland-wont-air-eurovision-over-israels-participation/a-77124206Open linkView original on feddit.orgA new explainer from the European Broadcasting Union has explained the intricacies about how the audience and jury voting work at the Eurovision Song Contest. The Q&A reveals new details about the checks done to ensure that voting is valid from both the public vote and the jury vote across the 35 participating countries and the Rest of the World.
https://www.europesays.com/europe/34670/Open linkView original on feddit.orgcross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/47844639
This May, millions of people are expected to tune in to the 70th Eurovision Song Contest. For the third consecutive year, they’ll find Israel celebrated onstage despite its ongoing genocide in Gaza, while Russia remains banned for its illegal invasion of Ukraine.
As musicians and cultural workers, many living within the reaches of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), we reject Eurovision being used to whitewash and normalise Israel’s genocide, siege and brutal military occupation against Palestinians.
We stand in solidarity with Palestinian calls for public broadcasters, performers, screening party organisers, crew, and fans to boycott Eurovision until the EBU bans complicit Israeli broadcaster KAN.
We applaud the principled withdrawals of the Spanish, Irish, Icelandic, Slovenian, and Dutch broadcasters, and the many national selection finalists committing to refuse to go to Eurovision. Just as artists stood against oppression in South Africa, we stand together now.
Apartheid Israel’s president Isaac Herzog – named in South Africa’s submission to the International Court of Justice for inciting to genocide – has played a leading role in lobbying broadcasters not to ban Israel from the contest, the world’s most-watched live music event.
The EBU's hypocritical responses to Russia’s and Israel’s crimes have removed any illusion of Eurovision's claimed “neutrality”. In 2022, the EBU said that Russia’s presence would “bring the competition into disrepute”.
Yet more than 30 months of genocide in Gaza – alongside ethnic cleansing and land theft in the besieged West Bank – aren’t considered sufficient to apply the same policy to Israel.
How can any performer or Eurovision fan in good conscience participate at the contest’s next edition in Austria amidst US-Israeli plans for hyper-surveilled concentration camps in 'New Gaza'? There are moments in time when passive silence is not an option.
We refuse to be silent when Israel’s genocidal violence soundtracks and silences Palestinian lives. When children in Israeli prisons endure beatings for humming a tune. When all that’s left of nearly every stage, studio, bookshop and university in Gaza is piles of rubble, under which slaughtered bodies still await recovery and proper burial.
As artists, we recognise our collective agency – and the power of refusal. We refuse to be silent. We refuse to be complicit. We call on others in our industry to join us. And we stand in solidarity with all principled efforts to end complicity in every industry.
No stage for genocide. #BoycottEurovision.
Initial Signatories include Brian Eno, Massive Attack, Sigur Rós, Nadine Shah, Idles, Young Fathers, Kneecap, Erika de Casier, Paul Weller, Mogwai, Smerz, Nemahsis, Macklemore, Roger Waters, Peter Gabriel, Primal Scream, Ólafur Arnalds, Of Monsters And Men, Paloma Faith, Black Country New Road, Salute, David Holmes, Dry Cleaning, Hot Chip, Midland, Olof Dreijer from The Knife, Mechatok, Lido Pimienta and former Eurovision winners Emmelie de Forest and Charlie McGettigan
https://nomusicforgenocide.org/eurovisionOpen linkView original on feddit.ukcross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/47842441
Celebrated musicians including Massive Attack, Kneecap, Brian Eno, Sigur Rós, Nadine Shah, and many more have signed an open letter calling for a boycott of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest in protest of Israel’s participation.
Campaign groups No Music For Genocide and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel are calling for a boycott of this year’s highly divisive Eurovision Song Contest.
More than 1,000 artists, including Massive Attack, Kneecap, Brian Eno, Sigur Rós, Nadine Shah, Mogwai and Hot Chip, have signed an open letter calling for a boycott of Eurovision 2026 in protest of Israel’s participation.
The letter calls upon the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to ban KAN – the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation – from the upcoming contest.
“For the third consecutive year,” the letter states, Israel will be “celebrated onstage despite its ongoing genocide in Gaza, while Russia remains banned for its illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
“We refuse to be silent when Israel’s genocidal violence soundtracks and silences Palestinian lives,” the letter reads. “When children in Israeli prisons endure beatings for humming a tune. When all that’s left of nearly every stage, studio, bookshop and university in Gaza is piles of rubble, under which slaughtered bodies still await recovery and proper burial.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for No Music For Genocide said: “People of conscience around the globe are fighting complicity in every industry for a free Palestine and a freer world. While many of us in the industry make light of Eurovision or doubt our own power as cultural producers, genocidal Israel’s leaders speak openly about the contest’s geopolitical value.”
Continue reading HERE
https://www.euronews.com/culture/2026/04/21/eurovision-crisis-massive-attack-kneecap-and-sigur-ros-call-on-fans-to-boycott-over-israelOpen linkView original on feddit.ukParticipating countries (so far, more are expected to announce their participation in the coming weeks):
https://eurovisionworld.com/esc/the-first-eurovision-asia-to-be-held-in-bangkok-in-november-2026Open linkView original on feddit.orgCongrats Jonas! He nailed the performance today.
https://www.nrk.no/innlandet/jonas-lovv-vant-melodi-grand-prix-2026-1.17789621Open linkView original on lemmy.world
