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All five countries have withdrawn after Israel’s participation in the competition was officially confirmed last week.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.”
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
EBU has confirmed early talks are underway, but no decision has been made
However, don’t expect a confirmed new inclusion any time soon, as Eurovision is currently wrestling to keep the contest from tearing itself apart.
Canada must take Israel’s place.
Grandpa_Simpson_enters_and_leaves.gif
That’d be so fucking funny, so we won’t :(
Devastating news for Icelandic twink lovers everywhere. Great news for civilization
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.
[Israeli public broadcaster] “A boycott may begin today with Israel, but no one knows where it will end or who else it may harm.”
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’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?
