Nemo performing at Eurovision 2024.
Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
Eurovision is getting a lot smaller. As of December 11, five countries have bowed out from competing in next year’s contest after the EBU allowed Israel to continue to participate. Now, the 2024 winner, Nemo, is returning their trophy in solidarity with the boycotts.
Below, everyone who’s boycotting Eurovision in 2026.
Swiss musician and Eurovision 2024 winner Nemo returned their trophy after the international singing contest confirmed that Israel will be allowed to compete again next year. “Eurovision says it stands for unity, inclusion, and dignity for all. Those values made this contest meaningful to me,” Nemo wrote in a statement shared on Instagram on December 11. “But Israel’s continued participation, during what the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry has concluded to be a genocide, shows a clear conflict between those ideals and the decisions made by the EBU.”
Nemo’s stance hasn’t changed since their victory speech when they won for Switzerland’s entry “The Code” in 2024. “I hope this contest can live up to its promise and continue to stand for peace and dignity for every person in this world,” the singer stated at the time.
Iceland is the latest country to join Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Slovenia in boycotting the competition. “The Song Contest and Eurovision have always had the aim of uniting the Icelandic nation, but it is now clear that this aim cannot be achieved, and it is on these program-related grounds that this decision is taken,” RÚV, Iceland’s public broadcaster, shared with AP News on December 10. Other countries, like Poland, are hoping to give Eurovision a “chance to once again become a space filled with music — and only music.”
Last week, the EBU refused to allow a vote on whether or not Israel would be allowed to participate next year, allowing them to compete once again. “We respect the decision of all broadcasters who have chosen not to participate in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest and hope to welcome them back soon,” Eurovision director Martin Green told the BBC on December 10. A final list of competing countries will be announced sometime before Christmas.
“The attempt to remove KAN from the contest can only be understood as a cultural boycott,” Golan Yochpaz, chief executive of Israel’s broadcasting company KAN, said on December 10. “A boycott may begin today with Israel, but no one knows where it will end or who else it may harm. Is this what we truly want this contest to be remembered for on its 70th anniversary?” Last year, over 70 former contestants signed an open letter calling on the EBU to ban Israel from competing, calling the country’s inclusion a “double standard” given that Russia was “expelled” from participating in 2022 for its invasion of Ukraine. In response, Eurovision maintained its “inclusive stance” to allow Israel to participate.
