Eurovision Song Contest 2026

Bidding phase

Graz

Innsbruck

Wels

Oberwart

St.
Pölten

Vienna

Ebreichsdorf

The location of the host city Vienna (in blue), cities and towns that submitted bids (in red) and cities and towns that expressed interest but ultimately did not bid (in grey)

After Austria's win in the 2025 contest, a press conference was organised by the host broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), where its director Roland Weißmann [de] emphasised venue suitability and proximity to airports as key criteria in the selection process for the host city. ORF's program director Stefanie Groiss-Horowitz [de] noted the lack of newly built large arenas in the country recent years but encouraged municipalities with viable plans to submit bids.^[5]

Several Austrian cities expressed interest in hosting the 2026 contest within days of the 2025 victory. On 18 May 2025, the mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig, confirmed the city's intention to bid.^[6] On the same day, Graz stated it was examining a potential bid, with mayor Elke Kahr pointing to Stadthalle Graz as a suitable venue.^[7][8] The Schwarzl Freizeit Zentrum, also in Graz, was proposed as a potential venue by its concert manager and operator, Klaus Leutgeb.^[9] Also on 18 May, Innsbruck and Wels confirmed they would bid with the Olympiahalle and a new exhibition hall, respectively.^[10][11] Oberwart also expressed interest in hosting.^[12] On 19 May, St. Pölten's mayor Matthias Stadler [de] proposed VAZ St. Pölten [de] as a venue.^[13] On 26 May, Ebreichsdorf presented a proposal to host in a temporary venue.^[14]

ORF launched the bidding process on 2 June 2025, by opening a window for cities and municipalities to declare their interest. Those candidates received the detailed tender documents and had until 4 July to submit their bids. Ebreichsdorf withdrew from the process on 15 June,^[15] followed by Oberwart on 21 June,^[16] Graz on 27 June,^[17] and Wels on 1 July.^[18] Vienna and Innsbruck were the only cities to submit bids by the deadline.^[19][20] On 20 August, the EBU and ORF announced Vienna as the host city.^[2][21]

Key:
 †  Host city  ^  Submitted a bid

Boycotts due to Israeli participation

The Gaza war has brought Israel's participation in the contest into controversy, with calls for the country to be excluded and demonstrations against its participation at the 2024 and 2025 editions.^[74] Israel's 2024 entry "Hurricane" was also controversial, as an earlier version titled "October Rain" was seen as referencing the 7 October attacks on Israel, a breach of political neutrality rules, which led to it only being accepted by the EBU after a rewrite.^[75] Israeli government officials ran advertising campaigns to boost public votes and encourage support for their country's entries in 2024 and 2025, which was cited as one of the factors leading to Israel finishing in fifth place in 2024 and second in 2025, in both cases placing within the top two of the public vote.^[76][77] The existence of such campaigns for the 2024 entry was confirmed by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs,^[76][78] and similar campaigns for the 2025 entry were detailed by Eurovision News Spotlight, a fact-checking and open-source intelligence initiative by the EBU.^[79][80] The 2025 set of advertisements, published by the Israel Government Advertising Agency, received over 68 million total impressions.^[81] Several participating broadcasters called for a rework of the televoting system and an independent audit of individual countries' televoting results following the 2025 final.^[82][83]

Wikinews has related news:

• Four countries back out of Eurovision 2026 amid ongoing boycott

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• Iceland pulls out of Eurovision 2026, joining four other countries to do so

Ahead of the 2026 contest, broadcasters from Ireland,^[84] the Netherlands,^[85] Slovenia,^[86] and Spain^[87] intended to boycott if Israel is allowed to compete, with the latter three also citing the Israeli advertising campaigns in the previous two editions as one of the reasons.^[88] Other broadcasters indicated their intention to participate, dependent on certain conditions being fulfilled by the EBU.^[89] The contest's reference group extended its confirmation deadline, before which broadcasters are able to withdraw applications for the 2026 contest without incurring a financial penalty, from 13 October to mid-December to allow for a wide-ranging consultation with broadcasters on Israeli participation, which was set to be determined at the EBU's general assembly on 4 and 5 December.^[90][91] A special general assembly session was planned to be held in early November to discuss and vote on Israel's representation in the contest,^{[89][92][93][94]} but it was cancelled following the implementation of a ceasefire deal and peace plan aimed at ending the war.^[95][96] The 4 December assembly ultimately voted in favour of adopting a series of amendments to the voting system, bypassing a proposed separate vote on Israel's participation and allowing the country to compete.^[97][98][99] As a result, broadcasters from the four aforementioned countries went ahead with their boycott,^{[100][101][102][88]} followed by Iceland on 10 December,^[103] with the Irish, Slovenian and Spanish broadcasters also stating they would not broadcast the contest. This would mark the first time that the event would not be broadcast in Ireland since 1963, in Slovenia since 1985 and in Spain since 1961.^[104] The absence of Spain would also mark the first time that the "Big Five" is incomplete since its expansion with Italy in 2011. The boycott was described by several media outlets as "the biggest crisis in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest".^[c] Protesting the decision to permit Israel, Nemo, who won for Switzerland in 2024, returned their trophy to the EBU.^[109] Charlie McGettigan, who won for Ireland in 1994 alongside Paul Harrington, later stated that he would return their trophy as well.^[110]

The following countries' broadcasters confirmed they would boycott in 2026:

•  Iceland – Although RÚV initially scheduled to select its entry for 2026 through its traditional national final Söngvakeppnin, on 8 September 2025, Stefán Jón Hafstein, chairman of RÚV's board of directors, stated that the broadcaster's participation is "uncertain" and would be dependent on whether Israel is allowed to compete.^[111][112] On 26 November, RÚV's board voted to recommend Israel be excluded,^[113] and on 10 December, six days after the assembly vote, it stated that it would boycott the contest but still broadcast the shows.^[103][114]
•  Ireland – On 11 September 2025, RTÉ stated "if the participation of Israel goes ahead" it would not compete, citing the "huge loss of life" as well as targeting of journalists in the Gaza war, and that the broadcaster is waiting until the EBU general assembly in December to make a decision.^[84] On 4 December, following the assembly vote, RTÉ decided to neither compete in nor broadcast the contest.^[100] Eurovision-related programmes still aired during Eurovision week, but regularly scheduled programming continued to be broadcast as normal on RTÉ One and RTÉ2 on the nights of all three shows.^[115][116]
•  Netherlands – Despite initially announcing it would internally select an entry for 2026,^[117] on 12 September 2025, AVROTROS stated: "We can no longer justify Israel's participation with the continued and serious human suffering in Gaza", and cited the Israeli government campaign as interference in the previous edition's outcome.^[85] The broadcaster later stated that it would not change its position for the contest in 2026 even if a ceasefire is reached or the broader Israeli–Palestinian conflict develops otherwise, and would reassess its participation "in subsequent years" dependent on the circumstances at that moment.^[118] On 4 December, following the assembly vote, AVROTROS confirmed its boycott of the event,^[101] but sister broadcasters NOS and NTR decided to air the contest through NPO 1 and NPO Radio 2.^[119]
•  Slovenia – On 4 September 2025, RTVSLO stated that it would decide whether to participate in 2026 after the EBU makes a decision on Israel's future participation and address concerns surrounding the "transparency of the vote" in December.^[120] The broadcaster later stated its "clear position", on 12 September and again on 27 November, that it would not participate if Israel is allowed to compete.^[86][121] On 4 December, following the assembly vote, RTVSLO decided to neither compete in nor broadcasting the contest.^[102] In April 2026, RTVSLO decided to air a slate of programmes named Voices of Palestine from 10 to 20 May, with some of those airing on the nights of the three shows.^[122]
•  Spain – In May 2025, José Pablo López, chairman of RTVE, initially scheduled the selection of the Spanish entry through Benidorm Fest, the national final format in use since 2022.^[123] On 9 September, it was reported that a decision on participation would be made in December, following the EBU general assembly, and that Benidorm Fest would be organised regardless of the decision taken.^[124] On 16 September, RTVE's board of directors passed a proposal for the broadcaster not to participate in nor air the contest if Israel participates.^[87][125] On 9 October, RTVE's head of communications María Eizaguirre [es] stated that the broadcaster's position remained unchanged in light of the recently proposed peace plan;^[126] López reaffirmed this in front of the Joint Parliamentary Control Committee of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate on 27 November.^[127] On 4 December, following the assembly vote, RTVE decided to neither compete in nor broadcast the contest.^[88] Regularly scheduled programming continued on La 1 and La 2 the nights of all three shows. At the start time of the final, RTVE aired a message on La 1 in Spanish and English which read, "The Eurovision Song Contest is a competition, but human rights are not. There is no room for indifference. Peace and justice for Palestine".^[128]

Other countries

The EBU member broadcasters in Andorra,^[129][130] Bosnia and Herzegovina,^[131] North Macedonia,^[132] and Slovakia^[133] confirmed non-participation prior to EBU revealing the participants. Associate member broadcasters in Canada and Kazakhstan expressed interest in debuting in the contest,^{[134][135][136][137]} however, the EBU confirmed that the two would not do so in 2026.^[138]

Voting system

The 2026 contest saw several changes to the voting system. The results of the semi-finals was once again be determined by a combination of jury vote and televote, as they had been from 2010 to 2022.^[d] The size of national juries, however, was increased from five to seven members, with two jurors required to be between the ages of 18 and 25, and the range of eligible professional backgrounds was widened. The maximum number of votes per payment method was reduced from 20 to 10. Voting instructions were updated to "discourage disproportionate promotion campaigns...particularly when undertaken or supported by third parties, including governments or governmental agencies".^[145] The rules were amended in the wake of controversy around Israel's result in the 2025 edition.^[146]

Visual and stage design

The 2026 contest featured a revamped version of the generic logo, designed by the Sheffield-based branding studio Pals, to celebrate the contest's 70th anniversary. A new design element named the "Chameleon Heart" was also introduced, consisting of 70 layers of the "Eurovision heart" rendered in 3D and is intended to be adaptable for future host countries' needs.^[147][148] The stage design was devised for the third year in a row by German production designer Florian Wieder, who had previously designed the sets of eight previous contests. It was inspired by the "creative spirit of the Viennese Secession" and based on three leitmotifs: "The Leaf", "The Curved Line", and "The Construct", with the green room directly connected to the stage through a walkway.^[140] The green room's design was inspired by Viennese coffee houses.^[149] As with the previous edition, a mascot named "Auri" was created for the contest.^[150]

Postcards

The "postcards" were short video introductions shown on television while the stage is being prepared for the next entry. Produced by Mödling-based Gebhardt Productions and filmed between October 2025 and April 2026, the postcards will feature the competing artists "immersed" in various scenic locations across Austria, with a physical postcard made for each.^[151]

Presenters

The contest was presented by Austrian entertainers Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski,^[152] while FM4 presenter Emily Busvine hosted the green room.^[153] The "Turquoise Carpet" and opening ceremony events were hosted by Tina Ritschl and Philipp Maschl [de].^[154]

Semi-final allocation draw

The draw to determine the participating countries' semi-finals took place on 12 January 2026 at 19:00 CET, at the Vienna City Hall.^[155][156] The thirty semi-finalists were divided over five pots, based on historical voting patterns, with the purpose of reducing the chance of "bloc voting" and increasing suspense in the semi-finals. The draw also determined which semi-final each of the five automatic qualifiers – host country Austria and the "Big Four" countries (France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom) – would vote in, be required to broadcast, and perform its entry in a non-competitive capacity.^[157][158] The ceremony was hosted by Alexandra Wachter [de] and Cesár Sampson,^[159] and was preceded by the passing of a "friendship gift" from Conradin Cramer, the president of the Basel-Stadt government representing the previous host city Basel, to Michael Ludwig, the mayor and governor of Vienna.^[160][161]

Semi-final 1

The first semi-final took place on 12 May 2026 at 21:00 CEST. Fifteen countries competed in this semi-final. Those countries plus Germany and Italy, as well as non-participating countries under an aggregated "Rest of the World" online vote, voted in this semi-final.^[162] The running order (R/O) was determined by the contest producers and made public on 2 April. In addition to the competing entries, Italy and Germany performed their entries during the show, appearing on stage after the entries from Georgia and Israel, respectively.^[163]

This semi-final was opened by Vicky Leandros performing her entry for Luxembourg in 1967, "L'amour est bleu", backed by a 70-member choir. The interval acts were "Welcome to the Funfair", a performance by the acrobatic show group Zurcaroh; and "Opposites", a musical number performed by presenters Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski which highlights "how to distinguish Austria from Australia", with an appearance by Go-Jo, who represented Australia in 2025.^[e]

More information R/O, Country ...

First semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026^[163][170]

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Moldova	Satoshi	"Viva, Moldova!"	208	4
2	Sweden	Felicia	"My System"	96	9
3	Croatia	Lelek	"Andromeda"	175	6
4	Greece	Akylas	"Ferto"	159	7
5	Portugal	Bandidos do Cante	"Rosa"	74	12
6	Georgia	Bzikebi	"On Replay"	5	15
7	Finland	Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen	"Liekinheitin"	227	3
8	Montenegro	Tamara Živković	"Nova zora"	71	13
9	Estonia	Vanilla Ninja	"Too Epic to Be True"	79	11
10	Israel	Noam Bettan	"Michelle"	269	1
11	Belgium	Essyla	"Dancing on the Ice"	91	10
12	Lithuania	Lion Ceccah	"Sólo quiero más"	101	8
13	San Marino	Senhit[b]	"Superstar"	41	14
14	Poland	Alicja	"Pray"	247	2
15	Serbia	Lavina	"Kraj mene"	187	5

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Semi-final 2

The second semi-final took place on 14 May 2026 at 21:00 CEST. Fifteen countries competed in this semi-final.^[26] Those countries plus Austria, France and the United Kingdom, as well as non-participating countries under an aggregated "Rest of the World" online vote, voted in this semi-final.^[162] The running order (R/O) was determined by the contest producers and made public on 2 April. In addition to the competing entries, France, Austria, and the United Kingdom performed their entries during the show, appearing on stage after the entries from Czechia, Cyprus, and Ukraine, respectively.^[163]

This semi-final was opened by a pre-recorded segment in which the presenters Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski performed the 2025 winning song "Wasted Love" in a "self-deprecating" manner, while the interval acts included the presenters performing "I'm So Excited" and JJ performing his new single "Unknown".^[f]

More information R/O, Country ...

Second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026^[163][174]

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Bulgaria	Dara	"Bangaranga"	278	1
2	Azerbaijan	Jiva	"Just Go"	2	15
3	Romania	Alexandra Căpitănescu	"Choke Me"	234	2
4	Luxembourg	Eva Marija	"Mother Nature"	60	12
5	Czechia	Daniel Zizka	"Crossroads"	142	9
6	Armenia	Simón	"Paloma Rumba"	49	14
7	Switzerland	Veronica Fusaro	"Alice"	108	11
8	Cyprus	Antigoni	"Jalla"	122	10
9	Latvia	Atvara	"Ēnā"	49	13
10	Denmark	Søren Torpegaard Lund	"Før vi går hjem"	199	5
11	Australia	Delta Goodrem	"Eclipse"	222	3
12	Ukraine	Leléka	"Ridnym"	174	6
13	Albania	Alis	"Nân"	158	7
14	Malta	Aidan	"Bella"	143	8
15	Norway	Jonas Lovv	"Ya Ya Ya"	206	4

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Final

The final took place on 16 May 2026 at 21:00 CEST and featured 25 competing countries. All 35 participating countries with jury and televote, as well as non-participating countries under an aggregated "Rest of the World" online vote, voted in the final.^[175] The running order (R/O) of the host nation was determined by a random draw on 17 March during the annual meeting of heads of the participating delegations,^[176] while the running order for the remaining finalists was determined by the contest producers following the second semi-final.^[177]

A notable technical issue occurred midway through Czechia's performance, with the screen showing stripes and the image freezing for a few seconds. The Czech delegation subsequently filed a request for a repeat performance, but the EBU described the incident as a minor technical problem and therefore did not permit a rerun.^[178]

Bulgaria won the contest with the song "Bangaranga", performed by Dara who wrote it with Anne Judith Wik, Cristian Tarcea [ro], and Dimitris Kontopoulos. Bulgaria won both the jury vote and televote, finishing with 516 points. It was the country's first win in the contest following 14 prior participations. Israel, Romania, Australia, Italy, Finland, Denmark, Moldova, Ukraine, and Greece completed the top ten. Belgium, Lithuania, Germany, Austria, and the United Kingdom occupied the bottom five positions, with Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom receiving no points from the televote.^[179]

The final was opened by the flag parade, introducing all twenty-five finalists, accompanied by JJ performing the Queen of the Night aria, his new single "Unknown", and his winning song in 2025, "Wasted Love", backed by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. The interval acts included former participants Max Mutzke (Germany 2004), Ruslana (Ukraine 2004), Lordi (Finland 2006), Alexander Rybak (Norway 2009 and 2018), Verka Serduchka (Ukraine 2007), Kristian Kostov (Bulgaria 2017), Erika Vikman (Finland 2025), and Miriana Conte (Malta 2025) performing a medley of past entries to celebrate the contest's seventieth anniversary;^[g] Parov Stelar performing his new single "Black Lilies"; and Cesár Sampson (Austria 2018) performing "Vienna".^[h]

More information R/O, Country ...

Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2026^[186][187]

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Denmark	Søren Torpegaard Lund	"Før vi går hjem"	243	7
2	Germany	Sarah Engels	"Fire"	12	23
3	Israel	Noam Bettan	"Michelle"	343	2
4	Belgium	Essyla	"Dancing on the Ice"	36	21
5	Albania	Alis	"Nân"	145	13
6	Greece	Akylas	"Ferto"	220	10
7	Ukraine	Leléka	"Ridnym"	221	9
8	Australia	Delta Goodrem	"Eclipse"	287	4
9	Serbia	Lavina	"Kraj mene"	90	17
10	Malta	Aidan	"Bella"	89	18
11	Czechia	Daniel Zizka	"Crossroads"	113	16
12	Bulgaria	Dara	"Bangaranga"	516	1
13	Croatia	Lelek	"Andromeda"	124	15
14	United Kingdom	Look Mum No Computer	"Eins, Zwei, Drei"	1	25
15	France	Monroe	"Regarde!"	158	11
16	Moldova	Satoshi	"Viva, Moldova!"	226	8
17	Finland	Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen	"Liekinheitin"	279	6
18	Poland	Alicja	"Pray"	150	12
19	Lithuania	Lion Ceccah	"Sólo quiero más"	22	22
20	Sweden	Felicia	"My System"	51	20
21	Cyprus	Antigoni	"Jalla"	75	19
22	Italy	Sal Da Vinci	"Per sempre sì"	281	5
23	Norway	Jonas Lovv	"Ya Ya Ya"	134	14
24	Romania	Alexandra Căpitănescu	"Choke Me"	296	3
25	Austria	Cosmó	"Tanzschein"	6	24

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Semi-final 1

More information Place, Combined ...

Split results of semi-final 1

Place	Combined		Jury		Televoting
	Country	Points	Country	Points	Country	Points
1	Israel	269	Poland	137	Israel	163
2	Poland	247	Finland	127	Moldova	146
3	Finland	227	Israel	106	Serbia	131
4	Moldova	208	Greece	88	Poland	110
5	Serbia	187	Croatia	85	Finland	100
6	Croatia	175	Belgium	81	Croatia	90
7	Greece	159	Sweden	79	Greece	71
8	Lithuania	101	Moldova	62	Lithuania	55
9	Sweden	96	Serbia	56	Estonia	46
10	Belgium	91	Lithuania	46	Montenegro	45
11	Estonia	79	Portugal	39	Portugal	35
12	Portugal	74	Estonia	33	San Marino	23
13	Montenegro	71	Montenegro	26	Sweden	17
14	San Marino	41	San Marino	18	Belgium	10
15	Georgia	5	Georgia	3	Georgia	2

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The ten qualifiers from the first semi-final were determined by televoting (50%) and seven-member juries (50%). All fifteen countries competing in the first semi-final voted, alongside Germany and Italy, and the aggregated Rest of the World vote. The ten qualifying countries were revealed in no particular order, with the full results being published after the final.

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received in the first semi-final. In the jury vote, Poland received the maximum score of 12 points from five countries, Finland received 12 points from four countries, Belgium and Israel received 12 points from three countries, while Greece and Serbia were each awarded one set of 12 points. In the public vote, Israel received the maximum score of 12 points from five countries, Moldova and Serbia received 12 points from four countries (plus the aggregated Rest of the World vote for Moldova). Finland received two sets of 12 points, while Croatia and Estonia were each awarded one set of 12 points.^[170]

More information #, Recipient ...

12 points awarded by juries

#	Recipient	Countries giving 12 points
5	Poland	Belgium,  Germany,  Greece,  Israel,  Lithuania
4	Finland	Estonia,  Georgia,  Portugal,  Sweden
3	Belgium	Finland,  Italy,  Poland
	Israel	Croatia,  Moldova,  Serbia
1	Greece	San Marino
	Serbia	Montenegro

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More information #, Recipient ...

12 points awarded by televoting

#	Recipient	Countries giving 12 points
5	Israel	Georgia,  Germany,  Moldova,  Portugal,  San Marino
	Moldova	Belgium,  Israel,  Italy,  Poland, Rest of the World
4	Serbia	Croatia,  Greece,  Lithuania,  Montenegro
2	Finland	Estonia,  Sweden
1	Croatia	Serbia
	Estonia	Finland

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Semi-final 2

More information Place, Combined ...

Split results of semi-final 2

Place	Combined		Jury		Televoting
	Country	Points	Country	Points	Country	Points
1	Bulgaria	278	Australia	137	Bulgaria	184
2	Romania	234	Denmark	124	Romania	147
3	Australia	222	Norway	109	Albania	113
4	Norway	206	Czechia	108	Ukraine	99
5	Denmark	199	Bulgaria	94	Norway	97
6	Ukraine	174	Romania	87	Australia	85
7	Albania	158	Malta	84	Denmark	75
8	Malta	143	Ukraine	75	Cyprus	75
9	Czechia	142	Switzerland	48	Switzerland	60
10	Cyprus	122	Cyprus	47	Malta	59
11	Switzerland	108	Albania	45	Luxembourg	34
12	Luxembourg	60	Armenia	30	Czechia	34
13	Latvia	49	Latvia	28	Latvia	21
14	Armenia	49	Luxembourg	26	Armenia	19
15	Azerbaijan	2	Azerbaijan	2	Azerbaijan	0

Close

The ten qualifiers from the second semi-final were determined by televoting (50%) and seven-member juries (50%). All fifteen countries competing in the second semi-final voted, alongside Austria, France, and United Kingdom, plus the aggregated Rest of the World vote. The ten qualifying countries were revealed in no particular order, with the full results being published after the final.