Did anyone miss the countries boycotting Eurovision?

[mids2019]

Watched Eurovision with the family. Camp silly escapism fun and a dreadful UK entry.. The question is did anyone miss the countries that boycotted the competition (I can't even recall any of them)? 160 million viewers certainly weren't that upset.

The Guardian is trying to portray the competition as embroiled in controversy and it will never be the same again but in reality nothing has changed. Well done Bulgaria by the way.....

I missed Spain. They're usually entertaining. The ridiculous jump in Israel's position made me feel angry at the unfairness so they did themselves no favours there. No huge support for Ukraine in the public vote - why is that then? Made me question things.

I have never understood why doing well in a poxy singing contest is so important to Israel. Do they think that coming 2nd will suddenly make them popular?

Of course no one missed the 5 countries boycotting - up to them individually to decide whether they want to boycott next year too when it's held in Bulgaria.

Congratulations to Bulgaria and to the other countries who finished in the top 5: Israel, Romania, Australia and Italy.

Israel was placed higher this year than last year, (2nd as opposed to 4th), despite the belief last year that they only scored as well as they did because voters were allowed 20 votes. This year the number of votes was reduced to 10.

They took part in the competition as did all the other countries who took part in the competition, and largely I assume for the same reasons.

But the above poster just said they missed Spain…..

I think people do still have a lot of sympathy for Ukraine but at the end of the day, that doesn't need to be expressed every year in a way that will benefit them at Eurovision.

It was a bit hard on Sam Ryder when Ukraine beat him in 2022, because his song was better, in my opinion. But people felt more strongly then because Putin had only recently invaded them. As time goes on, there is more media attention on newer wars.

Ok an individual missed Spain being entertaining, but collectively, the event was much like it always is. Great fun or trashy depending on your perspective.

Would it not make more sense to have a single vote? Few households have 10 people in them.

I didn't watch it, for the first time in over 45 years because I'm boycotting. I can't believe they'll happily kick out Russia, but allow Israel to compete. It's astonishing.

I’m highly amused by your idea of ‘bias’.

It’s not just about anyone ‘missing’ the five boycotting countries. The EBU has acknowledged that it’s been the worst crisis in their history, and one with real financial effects — not just fewer countries participating (smallest numbers since 2004), or the loss of licensing fees from those countries, but significant numbers of corporate sponsors pulled out.

And according to some fairly credible sources, Belgium and several Scandinavian countries were also planning to boycott, but were persuaded to stay. If they’d boycotted, it may not have gone ahead at all.

An individual who has posted on here that they missed Spain. I’m sure there are others, so saying of course no one missed the 5 boycotting countries is a vastly sweeping statement, and as has been proven on this very thread, not correct!

And, as I keep pointing out, that’s not the point of a boycott.

Dunno. I boycotted it!

Just read that and don’t see anything wrong with it?

Their reporting is mainly for Irish people who will need to be informed why Ireland didn’t participate (in case they missed it!) and how the boycott played out. What they said seemed balanced.

There was ample detail on the competition itself.

Audience voting makes the competition very unfair and much too political imho. Voting should be restricted to representative juries from each country like it used to be.

That's up to the organisers but I guess it's good that people can vote for more than one act if they liked more than one act.

It's the same principle as other competitions - for example Big Brother - you get more than one vote on that too.

I do think 20 was a bit excessive. Happier with 10 but would also think 5 would be appropriate.

I imagine the difference is that Putin attacked Ukraine without provocation.

Whereas Israel suffered extreme provocation before the war in Gaza (& Iran).

On 7 October 2023, Palestinian militants attacked Israel, killing 1,195 people (mostly civilians), committing war crimes, taking hostages, and beginning the Gaza war.

The Israeli government does believe in that delusion, however it doesn't translate to actual support.

Bravo to all the bots voting to secure an in incedible jump from 8th to 2nd place. Go tech!

Non human bots not really needed, just a few eager people Quite easy to do as detailed by this NYT article last week:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/world/europe/eurovision-israel-gaza-netanyahu.html

Not really in the spirit of fair competition, but also means that the 2nd place is really just a pyrrhic victory.

Hypocritical of Ireland to replace it with reruns of Father Ted having accepted the vilification of Graham Linehan

Don’t know because I boycotted it.

Irish writer Graham Linehan has accused Ireland’s public broadcaster RTE of antisemitism for airing his “Father Ted” comedy instead of the Eurovision Song Contest in protest at Israel.

“I did not give my permission for Father Ted to be used as a prop in an antisemitic political gesture,” Linehan said in a social media post.
“I object to it in the strongest possible terms,” he added.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/irish-writer-calls-public-broadcasters-decision-not-to-air-eurovision-antisemitic/

So, they come second, by cheating, and that makes them suddenly popular, and the whole world will forget the horrors which have gone on, and continue to go on in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria.

My brain can’t understand this. It’s beyond crazy!

No evidence of cheating but people who dislike Israel just decide they must be cheating because they find it inconceivable that others would vote for them.

Last year people complained that paid advertising and people having 20 votes favoured Israel, so the organisers changed the rules in response.

End result - they came 2nd this year compared to 4th last year.

They jumped from 6th to 2nd.

It would indeed be crazy if coming second in Eurovision made a country "suddenly popular" but this isn't reality.

Does the NYT not like Israel?