Alphapuggle PieFedIceland becomes fifth country to boycott Eurovision
www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjwy9n786n0o
Iceland has joined Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and the Netherlands in saying it will boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest.
All five countries have withdrawn after Israel’s participation in the competition was officially confirmed last week.
“The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RÚV) has decided not to participate in the Eurovision song contest in Vienna, Austria, next year,” a statement said after an RÚV board meeting on Wednesday.
“Participation of Israeli national broadcaster, KAN, in the contest has created disunity among both members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the general public.”
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mannycalaveraThe EBU have to address this at the show. More so if additional countries pull out. They can’t just sweep this under the rug now.
If they do, it’s just going to be some pablum about how Eurovision is about music bringing people together with allusions to it being bigoted to be against a fascist apartheid regime committing genocide with impunity 😮💨🤬
No way are they addressing this during the show. They know that can only make them look worse and prompt people to click away. The hosting is always light hearted and (bad) jokey, not a time they want to be delivering sincere defenses.
I suspect you’re right. I don’t see how it wouldn’t be painfully obvious and awkward if they didn’t say something?
But I know they won’t.
MicrowWhy? A number of countries choosing not to participate has happened in a lot of Eurovision years. Yes, this year is unusual because they are all not participating for the same reason, but thats the only difference
OkokimupI feel like one of The Big Five boycotting is a significant difference, but I’m not an expert.
It really felt like this was Fire Saga’s year, too.
They really should have entered Volcano Man
djdarrenThat Sigrit would have ended up singing something new and getting them disqualified.
AnUnusualRelicSpain, Ireland, Slovenia and the Netherlands okay.. but Iceland? That’s gonna La La Ding Dong the whole community!
Devastating news for Icelandic twink lovers everywhere. Great news for civilization
Canada just got in, it would be a gigachad move to immediately boycott
Canada was invited to join this year?
Unless something changed very recently, it’s still in early talks
https://www.euronews.com/culture/2025/11/13/canadas-european-pivot-could-an-inclusion-in-the-eurovision-song-contest-be-next
Grandpa_Simpson_enters_and_leaves.gif
That’d be so fucking funny, so we won’t :(
Canada must take Israel’s place.
If that’s what they’re leading with, it shows how weak the rest of their defence is.
(also, am I being cynical, or is “*who knows where it will end*” meant to be lowkey invoking the you-know-what?)
I didn’t realize we (Spain) withdrew. Either that was a while ago or they glossed it over on the news.
they announced it a few days ago
It was fairly big news so you just missed it somehow. The original four did it on the same day.
I’m just listening to an interview with the head of the Icelandic National Broadcaster and their line is that this was “not a political decision” on their part, but because this programme item would no longer be the “joyful unifying event” that it has been and is supposed to be, so they’re not taking part. There is a bit of hand-washing going on, but they’re not really wrong either.
I’m not super familiar with Eurovision but is there a world where enough countries boycott that someone actually takes action or am I being naive?
Germany and France will stick with Israel in this. One of Macrons ministers was bragging about how he helped keep Israel in it. I don’t have the link but I saw the article sometime in the 48 hours.
Good job keeping politics out of it. They just want to ignore genocide. Hope Israel wins and it falls apart completely
Forget about politics.
The Eurovision is great for showing that humans can actually do something together across borders and dispite of politics. We should invite everyone regardless of politics.
But when one participants is doing a fucking genocide, I think it’s perfectly fair for the rest not wanting to do anything with them, let alone doing a sing along.
A genocide is way way beyond politics. It’s a crime against humanity.
Also “forget politics” doesn’t work because they are being protested for getting involved in politics.
Eurovision organizers are actively trying to support Israel with everything from propoganda speeches to having security snatch Palestine flags from live audience.
Hmm so as long as they’re in it the show goes on right?
Off the top of my head, 20 countries make it to the final. The Big Five (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK) are all guaranteed a spot, the remaining 15 spots are decided by semi finals.
So in theory, if enough countries boycotted that there were fewer than 20 countries left for the final, they might start to panic. But I suspect the show would just go on.
Damn that’s a bummer, thanks for the info tho.
Is eurovision even that big of an event as like 2010s?