2026 Eurovision to Include 35 Countries, Fewer Than Recent Years

More than 1,000 artists urged a boycott of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest this week, and several countries have announced they will not participate in protest over Israel's participation, @AFP reported. The contest, marking its 70th anniversary edition, will feature only 35 countries on May 16 in Vienna, the smallest edition in recent years.

Five broadcasters, including Spain, are expected to boycott the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest over Israel's participation. Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia have decided not to participate for the same reason. Spain is one of the Big Five largest financial contributors to Eurovision with automatic qualification to the Grand Final.

More than 1,000 musicians around the world have signed a petition to exclude Israel's public broadcaster KAN from Eurovision under the banner of no music for genocide. The petition signatories include Massive Attack, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters and Sigur Ros.

The European Broadcasting Union has defended Israel's public broadcaster KAN in the past, arguing that it meets all criteria for independence.

The European Broadcasting Union has announced changes and safeguards to the public voting system following accusations of manipulation in favour of the Israeli candidate in 2025. The Eurovision Song Contest claimed 166 million viewers in 2025. The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon featured artists from 43 countries.

Sanctioning Russia created a precedent and sparked a debate on geopolitical tensions in Eurovision, said Christina Oberg, a professor at Linnaeus University in Sweden. Some are asking why Israel has not been excluded from the Eurovision Song Contest like Russia due to the massive civilian death toll from Israel's two-year bombardment of Gaza, Oberg said.

Russia was removed from the Eurovision Song Contest after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Hungary quit the Eurovision Song Contest in 2020. Belarus was suspended from the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021 for suppressing media freedom. North Macedonia has pulled out of the Eurovision Song Contest in past years citing financial issues.

Austria has labelled any cultural boycott of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest as stupid and pointless. Austria snubbed the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest in Madrid because of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, according to Dean Vuletic. The European Broadcasting Union started attracting sponsors in the late 1990s, producing merchandise, placing the contest in larger halls and selling tickets to the public.

Further tensions could arise this year as the spotlight will be on Denmark in a way that never happened before, said Lisanne Wilken from Aarhus University in Denmark. The situation with Greenland and U.S. President Donald Trump has put Denmark even more on the map, she said.

Trump's strident claims on the vast Arctic territory that belongs to Denmark have stirred a wave of concern and resistance within the European Union.