The Eurovision Song Contest is implementing significant changes to its voting system after facing criticism over Israel’s ability to rally public support in last year’s competition, which was already marked by boycotts over the country’s participation.
The European Broadcasting Union, which oversees the 70-year-old musical celebration, has established new guidelines for 2026 aimed at preventing “disproportionate promotion campaigns” following concerns raised by multiple national broadcasters about the previous year’s results.
Israel’s entry “New Day Will Rise” secured an exceptionally high 83% of its total points from public voting, ultimately finishing second in the overall competition. In contrast, Austria’s winning song “Wasted Love” received only 41% of its points from the public and depended heavily on jury votes to claim victory.
Social media activity from Israel’s foreign ministry X account during last year’s semi-final actively promoted voting for singer Yuval Raphael, specifically noting that “you can vote up to 20 times.”
Eurovision Song Contest Director Martin Green explained the reasoning behind the rule changes without directly addressing the Israeli posts. “We saw some activity last year which we could describe as disproportionate marketing and promotional activity that we felt was out of sync with the nature of the show, so we put some rules in about that,” Green stated in an interview with Reuters.
The updated regulations reduce the maximum number of votes per caller from 20 to 10, with voters identified through their payment methods to prevent abuse.
This past Saturday, Green issued a formal warning to Israel’s national broadcaster KAN regarding online videos posted by this year’s contestant Noam Bettan that instructed viewers to “vote 10 times for Israel.” Officials determined that directly soliciting the maximum number of votes violated both contest rules and the competition’s spirit.
KAN responded by stating it “follows all EBU rules” and characterized the videos as “an independent initiative carried out by the artist’s close personal team, without any prohibited financing, similar to activities conducted by other contestants as well.”
Israel has not provided a direct response to questions about its promotional strategies from the previous year, though the country has frequently claimed it faces unfair global criticism, particularly since the Gaza conflict began.
These developments highlight the ongoing challenges Eurovision faces in managing what the EBU describes as the world’s largest and most complicated television voting system.
Green emphasized that encouraging diaspora support is common practice among participating nations. “All countries ask their people, particularly their diasporas – because of course you can’t vote for your own country in your own country – to get behind (them). It’s a sport. We are the Olympics of music, so there’s nothing unusual about that,” he said during Friday’s interview.
The European Broadcasting Union is now encouraging viewers to distribute their votes among multiple songs while implementing additional fraud prevention measures.
Despite the new restrictions, determined voters can still potentially cast up to 30 votes by using all three available payment methods: online, text message, and phone calls.
Juan Moreno-Ternero, an economics professor at Pablo de Olavide University in Seville, Spain, who authored a 2022 academic study on Eurovision voting patterns, acknowledged the inherent challenges in any voting system. “You can always find pros and cons for almost any protocol,” he noted. “All voting rules, no matter what, are subject to manipulation.”
