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There will be plenty of hip thrusts and pyrotechnics as the semifinals of the Eurovision Song Contest<\/a> get underway in Vienna on Tuesday night. But this year a controversy around Israel\u2019s participation in the campy celebration of music has the potential to overshadow the annual show of Schengen-area unity. As contestants were getting ready for the first round of competition, an unsettled scandal from last year<\/a> resurfaced, creating a new cycle of headlines and another round of controversy.<\/p>\n In May 2025, Austrian singer JJ<\/a> won Eurovision. Israel\u2019s contestant, Yuval Raphael, came in second. But there was a major discrepancy between the official juries\u2019 votes, which put Raphael in 14th place, and the results of the fan vote, which she won. This disparity led several members of the European Broadcasting Union, which operates the contest, to call for an audit and transparency with the data<\/a>. (The director of the song contest told the BBC that \u201can independent compliance monitor reviews both jury and public vote data to ensure we have a valid result.\u201d) Others floated theories that Israel had inappropriately influenced the results by boosting its contestant, but in a secret ballot, members of the EBU voted to enact rule changes, a result that permitted Israel to continue competing.<\/p>\n On Monday, The New York Times<\/em><\/a> published an investigation revealing the extent of the Israeli government\u2019s efforts to ensure the country remained in the competition as the war in Gaza became a subject of international controversy. Senior Israeli diplomats reportedly contacted officials and members of the EBU directly to make their case, one part of a broader effort to help Israel\u2019s chances. The paper also alleges that a campaign boosting the country\u2019s competitor might have been enough to change the outcome of last year\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n According to records from the Israeli Government Advertising Agency, per the Times,<\/em> the government of Israel spent at least $800,000 on ads to promote its Eurovision contestant in 2024<\/a>. The Times<\/em> says that an even larger campaign took place in 2025, though the outlet also reports that it did not find evidence of bot voting or other covert tactics having been used to directly manipulate the vote.<\/p>\n Israel has competed in Eurovision since 1973 and also hosted the competition in 2019, following its win in 2018. Doron Medalie, an Israeli songwriter who previously wrote for the country\u2019s Eurovision acts, told the Times<\/em> that the government has been running media campaigns to support its competitors since at least 2018. \u201cEverybody is jealous and triggered because Israel is achieving great results,\u201d he told the Times.<\/em> Medalie denied that the government did anything inappropriate. (The Israeli government did not respond to the Times<\/em>\u2019 requests for comment.)<\/p>\n There have been some heated moments at Eurovision over the last decade, mostly related to pro-Palestinian sentiment appearing on air during the contest. In 2019, Iceland was fined<\/a> after the members of its competing act held up scarves featuring the Palestinian flag on air<\/a>. But generally, Eurovision has proceeded apace\u2014until this year. After the 2025 voting controversy and amid the war in Gaza, Iceland, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Slovenia announced that they would not participate in 2026\u2019s Eurovision as long as Israel remained in the competition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n