The largest boycott in history: five countries officially abandoned Eurovision

Iceland has joined the countries that are boycotting the Eurovision 2026 international song contest after Israel's participation was approved. It is reported by Reuters.

Earlier, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Slovenia, explaining its boycott by Israel's actions in Gaza.

Iceland's boycott of the contest was announced by the country's state television and radio company RUV. The director General of the Icelandic broadcaster Stefan Eiriksson recalled that Iceland last week was among those who requested a general vote on the participation of Israel. However, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) instead adopted new rules aimed at dissuading governments from influencing the competition.

"From the public debate in our country and the reaction to the EBU decision last week, it is clear that there will be neither joy nor peace in the event of RUV's participation," the head of the Icelandic broadcasting company concluded.

Iceland has never won the Eurovision Song Contest, but took second place in 1999 and 2009.

Despite the exit of five permanent long-term participants of the competition, the EBU assured that contributions for the remaining countries will not increase.

"Preliminary fee amounts were communicated to interested member broadcasters in September. We can confirm that no broadcaster will pay more to participate in the competition next year as a result of the refusal of a number of countries. Although a small number of member broadcasters may not join us in 2026, we expect about 35 broadcasters to participate," the statement said. The Union in response to a request from the Norwegian broadcasting company NRK.

The participation fee for each country ranges from several tens of thousands of euros to hundreds of thousands of euros for the largest broadcasters and countries.

As reported by EADaily, last week four countries refused to participate in Eurovision 2026 due to the admission of Israel — Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia. This became one of the largest boycotts in the history of the contest, which has been held since 1956.

At the end of November, the voting rules were changed after the incident with the representative of Israel in 2025. Now viewers will be able to cast only 10 votes each (previously there were 20), and the jury will return to the semifinals for the first time since 2022, creating a 50-50 vote split between the jury and the viewers in the final. All members of the jury — their number has been increased from five to seven — will be forced to sign an official declaration confirming that they will vote independently and impartially. Persons aged 18-25 will be added to the jury to "reflect the attractiveness" of the competition for a young audience.