Geneva (AFP) – Eurovision Song Contest organisers announced Wednesday that they were excluding any country in an armed conflict from hosting the competition and increased the mininum age of competitors.
While they did not mention any country by name, Israel, which has been at war in Gaza since 2023, came close to winning the competition in both 2025 and 2026, ultimately finishing second on each occasion.
Under the old rules, the winning country normally hosts the following year’s competition.
Under the new rules, “the winning broadcaster will automatically be ineligible to host the contest if an armed conflict, a sensitive geopolitical situation, or any other situation materially affects the security, safety or stability of their state or immediate region”, they said in a statement.
In a first, five countries – Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland – boycotted the 2026 competition in Vienna over Israel’s participation.
They said they could not take part alongside Israel because of its war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Martin Green, director of the Eurovision Song Contest, said in a statement that the changes had been guided by feedback from member countries.
He added: “These changes are about giving everyone involved greater clarity, protecting artists and ensuring the contest continues to provide a safe and welcoming environment, while preserving the spirit and integrity that make the Eurovision Song Contest so special.”
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They should have banned rigging of votes, and Israel.
They should’ve banned Israel.
But they want to make it look like they’re doing something and they don’t know how to stop Israel from rigging the votes.
Yeah, it’s such a weak response in the face of genocide. At least the reason they can’t host it themselves is defined and stated. That will be a part of the participation story each year. But it’s nowhere near enough.
Kind of cowardly, but still everyone will read this as an Israel ban so I guess it’s a winIt’s a loss; now people on the fence will think that Israel should be allowed to participate in Eurovision now that a token restriction has been applied to it.
Well if they end the war to qualify…
Edit: oh wow this whole time I thought it meant participating my bad everyone
This is not banning Israel. When Ukraine won, the next year the show was hosted Liverpool. This new rule is just making this explicit.
I bet 2026 is the year Israel wins. They finally perfected how to manipulate enough votes. Germany will offer to host in solidarity…
No doubt they can see that coming, that’s why they’re pretending to do something about it.
That will just create a bigger headache.
