ESConomy Feels Less Live As Audience Boos Are Muted

REUTERS/Lisa Leutner Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab · The broadcaster will not drown out the sound of any booing from the crowd, as happened this year during Israel's performance, ORF's director of programming Stefanie Groiss-Horowitz ...

It still feels like something that I couldn't miss. And, that said, it feels different," says Rob Lilley-Jones, host of the UK-based Euro Trip podcast. "There's still that fun element but now, and for the last few years, you are going into ...

Ahead of the Eurovision Grand Final (Saturday 16 May), where 25 countries will perform in their bid to be crowned the Eurovision 2026 and 70th edition champion, there are two live Semi-Finals (Tuesday 12 May and Thursday 14 May) for Eurovision fans to enjoy all 35 countries competing at this year's contest.The top ten countries from each Semi-Final will make it through to Saturday’s Grand Final. In Thursday’s second Semi-Final, UK viewers will be able to vote for their favourites and will also be treated to the first performance on the Eurovision stage from the UK entry, LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER, singing his song Eins, Zwei, Drei.

During the grand final the Israeli singer Yuval Raphael was targeted when two people attempted to storm the stage, and threw paint which ended up hitting a Eurovision crew member. The atmosphere in the arena as the results came in was easily the most tense I've experienced in my years of reporting on the song contest. People were praying. Some were crying. There were chants of "Austria, Austria" as the audience awaited the final scores.

Viewers will then be treated to the 25 competing entries as they take to the stage one by one, giving the performance of a lifetime in the hopes of being crowned the Eurovision 2026 winner.

Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia said that they were boycotting next year’s Eurovision Song Contest because Israel would continue to be allowed in the competition. ... The arc of mobile phones and social media may foretell the future of artificial intelligence in schools. ... The Netherlands and Slovenia also said they would not take part in next year’s contest, meant to be its celebratory 70th edition. ... In this year’s contest, a campaign by Israel to encourage voting for its entrant drew criticism.

... Image — Polina Gagarina, centre, who sang for Russia in the 2015 Eurovision, was jeered when she came second but the protests were muffled electronically. This year, organizers will broadcast all audience reactions.

The existence of such campaigns for the 2024 entry was confirmed by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and similar campaigns for the 2025 entry were detailed by Eurovision News Spotlight, a fact-checking and open-source intelligence initiative by the EBU. The 2025 set of advertisements, published by the Israel Government Advertising Agency, received over 68 million total impressions. Several participating broadcasters called for a rework of the televoting system and an independent audit of individual countries' televoting results following the 2025 final. ... Ahead of the 2026 contest, broadcasters from Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain announced their intention to boycott if Israel is allowed to compete, with the latter three also citing the Israeli advertising campaigns in the previous two editions as one of the reasons.

But these reactions are a reminder of how delicate the situation has become. What might once have been dismissed as a flamboyant performance is now being scrutinized and interpreted in detail. ... Ukrainian singer Viktoria Leleka is competing with a song written in Berlin, hoping to win over the hearts of Eurovision fans with a blend of ethno-pop and musical theater. In an interview with German broadcaster ARD, she spoke about how much she loves Germany and the language, and how important it is to her to give a voice to her homeland and its diverse culture at a time of Russian aggression against her country.