Row erupts over high number of votes for Israel at Eurovision

The organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest have been called on to explain the conspicuously high number of public votes that Israel received.

Several broadcasters have contacted the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in Geneva regarding the allocation of points. “We are in constant communication with all participating broadcasters of the Eurovision Song Contest and take their concerns seriously,” Eurovision director Martin Green said on Tuesday.

“Now that the event is over, we will conduct extensive discussions with the participating broadcasters, reflect on all aspects of this year’s competition and gather feedback. This will be incorporated into the planning of the 70th Eurovision Song Contest next year,” Green further stated.

Several television broadcasters involved in the competition questioned the voting process at the final in the Swiss city of Basel on Saturday evening.

Spanish public broadcaster RTVE announced a request to review the televoting: “Several countries will also submit the same request, as they believe that the televoting was influenced by the current military conflicts and this could endanger the cultural character of the event.”

To decide the Eurovision winner, the votes of the public and the votes of expert juries are equally weighted. The juries consist of musicians, producers and other industry experts. This year, there was a noticeable gap between what the experts and the audience thought of the Israeli song.

Israeli entrant an October 7 survivor

Israel sent Yuval Raphael to compete at Eurovision. She is a survivor of the massacre by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and other extremist groups on October 7, 2023. Due to the Gaza war, which Israel launched in response to the attacks, there were repeated protests against Israel’s participation in Eurovision.

Raphael received 60 points from the expert juries of the 37 participating countries for the song “New Day Will Rise,” placing her only 15th in the ranking of 26 finalists. But the 24-year-old was in first place by a large margin in the public vote. She received a total of 297 public points, which catapulted her to second place in the overall ranking.

It is not unusual for juries and the public to differ. However, the gap rarely stands out so clearly. For comparison, the winner JJ from Austria received 258 points from the juries and 178 points from the public.

Organizer says televote confirmed as valid

The EBU referred to the company Once in the German city of Cologne, which has been coordinating the televoting for Eurovision for years. They have confirmed that the voting results from all countries were correctly reported, the EBU said.

The voting procedure for Eurovision is “the most advanced in the world,” according to director Green. Everything is checked and verified “to exclude suspicious or irregular voting patterns.” The company Once has confirmed the validity of the vote.