The Eurovision Song Contest bought off to a tense begin in Vienna on Tuesday with the primary semifinal that includes Israel, whose attendance prompted 5 nations to boycott over the Gaza conflict, although an preliminary road protest was barely noticeable.
The contest, historically a good-natured celebration of pop music and excessive camp now in its seventieth yr, has grow to be mired in disaster over Israel’s navy offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led assault of October 7, 2023.
The public broadcasters of 5 nations – Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia – are boycotting this yr’s occasion, making it the smallest since 2003 with 35 entries. That will even probably scale back viewership from final yr’s estimated 166 million, greater than the Super Bowl’s 128 million.
The pressure within the metropolis was palpable forward of the semifinal, which started at 9 p.m., although contained in the live performance corridor the place it was held there have been solely cheers for Israel throughout a roll-call of nations collaborating. There have been many Israeli flags within the crowd.
“We won’t let ourselves be terrorised into silence,” Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig of the Social Democrats stated on Friday in an offended response to a small group of pro-Palestinian protesters who blew whistles at a live performance he was talking at.
“Unfortunately we will need large security measures because of people like you, for example. That will incur great expense, but we will nevertheless hold a festival of togetherness, I can promise you that,” he stated.
The joint head of Amnesty International Austria, Shoura Hashemi, stated on X that Ludwig ought to apologise for his “unbearable, false, divisive” remarks aimed toward peaceable protesters.
Austrian officialdom is strongly supportive of Israel, and pro-Palestinian protests are small. A handful of protests are deliberate this week, with attendance estimated at as much as 3,000.
A professional-Palestinian protest on Tuesday afternoon initially anticipated to contain round 500 folks fizzled out, solely drawing about 30.
Irish broadcaster RTE referred again to its assertion in December that it could be “unconscionable” to take half.
Israel usually alleges a worldwide smear marketing campaign towards it.
At least 1,200 folks have been killed within the October 7 assault, most of them civilians. Israel responded by launching an assault on the enclave that killed greater than 72,000 Palestinians, principally civilians, and left a lot of Gaza in ruins.
Israel’s contestant final yr, Yuval Raphael – a survivor of the assault – got here second thanks to an enormous public vote.
Its contestant this yr, Noam Bettan, has no apparent political connotation however did obtain a proper warning on Saturday for posting movies instructing the general public to vote for him 10 occasions, the utmost allowed.
Contest Director Martin Green instructed Reuters he hoped these boycotting would return.
“They are members of our family, right? We miss them,” he stated, including: “We remain in dialogue to see if we can find pathways for them back.”
© Thomson Reuters 2026.