The European Broadcasting Union is considering significant changes to the rules for public voting at Eurovision in order to reduce the impact of coordinated and politically motivated campaigns on the contest results. This is reported by the BBC, writes UNN.
Details
Under the current rules, viewers can cast up to 10 votes for one performer by phone, via SMS or online. The EBU proposes moving voting entirely online and requiring viewers to choose at least 3 favorite contestants instead of voting multiple times for one representative.
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The European Broadcasting Union acknowledged that the geopolitical situation is increasingly influencing viewers' choices. The organization noted that votes for individual artists are being cast for reasons not directly related to their performances.
Rules changed after the scandal over voting for Israel
The issue of political influence on the results became particularly acute after Eurovision 2025. At that time, the Israeli representative Yuval Raphael received 297 points from the public—the most among all contestants—although the jury ranked him only 15th. As a result, Raphael finished in second place
Several broadcasters questioned this result, drawing attention to campaigns urging people to vote for the Israeli contestant. In particular, accounts linked to the Israeli government called on users to give him the maximum possible number of votes.
In response, the EBU changed the rules for the 2026 contest, reducing the maximum number of votes from 20 to 10. However, ahead of this year's contest, the organizers also issued an official warning to Israeli broadcaster Kan over a post by its representative urging people to "vote 10 times for Israel."
The EBU stated that such calls do not comply with the "spirit of the contest" and demanded that the relevant posts be deleted.
Under the new proposal, viewers will not be able to cast multiple votes for the same country. At the same time, the organizers acknowledge that it will be difficult to completely prevent the creation of additional accounts.
We believe that these changes will help mitigate the effect of mobilized bloc voting without jeopardizing fairness or trust