The State of Play
The first full article of the season and we have plenty to address after an expectedly busy off-season with restructuring of the Eurovision leadership team, a potential big shake up in participants and some rule tweaks. I’ll make an attempt here to summarise the key news most fans will already be aware of and give my thoughts.
The Balkan Return
“The Balkan Girls. They like to party like no body, like nobody”. Well apparently Elena lied to us all back in 2009 because since then many have skipped Europe’s flagship music show.
After a collective sulk that lasted from one to three years, Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova have all confirmed they will grace Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle next May for Eurovision’s 70th birthday bash.
Bulgaria’s BNT waved goodbye after Turin 2022, citing the sort of budget squeeze that Rachel Reeves would be jealous of. Their final participation that year was the infamous and more or less self funded Intelligent Music Project, who's ancient rocker backing via cameos led to just
Romania’s withdrawal was similarly typical following a national final with record low interest and a last appearance in Liverpool 2023, limping out of the semi-final with their worst result and a nil points - a humiliation for a country that for a long time was seen as always in the running with a base number of guaranteed points.
Moldova’s TRM took an unexpected sabbatical after Malmö 2024, blaming “economic, administrative and artistic challenges” too following the first rounds of Etapa National year, with the former two issues seeming the most believable with a genuinely good option amongst the dredge - #JusticeForBacho. Romania is dusting off Selecția Națională for the first time since 2022, promising “a fresh start” and “better support for artists” which has been a stick many fans and Teodor Andrei himself have bashed TVR with in this two year gap. Moldova’s NF will be making a return complete with a 20-head jury (five of them international) whilst Bulgaria are launching a three stage national final.
That’s three returns, and three big public selections for Eurovision obsessives to look forward to after Christmas, a universally positive development for the contest.
So the question is why now? Particularly in the case of Bulgaria which allegedly had regime issues with participation similar to those keeping Hungary and Turkey away.
The answer is pretty obviously the EBU’s famously opaque fee structure. Participation costs are tiered by GDP, viewing figures and historic contributions, yet they have ballooned since Russia’s expulsion removed one very large cheque. Smaller nations have been known to pay anything from €21,000 to €180,000 before any other costs are added. When TVR thanked the EBU for “taking into account the challenges our institution faces”, the subtext was louder than a yodel-rap breakdown. Discounts were dangled, debts quietly parked and anniversary goodwill deployed.
But again, why now? The means to encourage these nations back has existed for years. To most cynics, this is as much an attempt to expand the contest to it’s previous participant highs as much as it is an insurance policy against an issue coming to a head in the next week…
Anyway welcome home, troublemakers. Don’t ever leave us on read again.
The Rules Adjustment
In short, juries are back in the semis, expanded to 7 per broadcaster (up from 5) and the televoting limit per person is halved to 10 from 20. These are all positive.
On the juries in the semi finals, this couple of year experiment being ditched is probably for the best, even if we did see some smaller countries qualify last year with all of San Marino, Malta and Iceland making it, each of them did so by sending entries that weren't particularly the height of sophistication. It's too selective a reading to say this is the only way countries without many in-built votes can qualify (See Latvia each of the previous two years) but that idea can still take hold even if incorrect. The contest needs a balance of 'serious' and 'fun' entries and this rule set was in danger of skewing that. More to the point, this change was brought in not as an improvement, but as a very lazy plaster over the issue of semi final vote swapping - rather than improving the jury system, they just scrapped it. 2025's semis presented some weird results elsewhere, but the Ukraine and Israel victories made this public free for all (without much broader voting changes) untenable. There's a system in which juries can be binned, and maybe that is the ultimately better one for the contest, but that needs a thorough scoring re-work, not what was clumsily attempted.
Bigger juries are something that's been called for every year and is overdue. To get the best out of this I hope each broadcaster is encouraged to use these additional slots to bring in more diversity of musical and entertainment background, reflecting the way the media landscape has changed since the 5 person juries were first brought back.
As for the reduction of maximum votes, I will give the EBU huge credit here because this is a move which could negatively hit their revenue but I reserve the right to withdraw that if we see dramatic price hikes. It's not the most elegant or effective solution to the issue of diaspora and political voting of which Israel is the most blatant example and even if there are ways to skirt just through using more sims or cards, this should help the televote be a bit more of a genuine reflection of people's preferences.
Overall, whilst there's certainly more that could have been done, we are seeing steps aimed at addressing many of the problems that the contests of the 2020s so far have struggled with. Whether another common complaint of producer power is addressed is something we will only see closer to the time in May (not holding my breath on that) but so far these announcements, in particular bringing back some of our friends in the East had put a bit of a better spin on the contest as selections start to take shape, but they may be too little too late …
The Moment Of Truth
The ultimate deciding factor for how 2026 will pan out however remains on the horizon with many of the grumpy broadcasters maintaining an absolutist stance in public on Israel's participation.
Slovenia and Spain have re-affirmed their positions in the past week or so. The latter of those two of course carries a lot more weight, as do a few of the others who had made threats earlier this year but have gone a bit quieter. It’s also been widely reported by actual mainstream news sources that Germany have threatened to withdraw if Israel are excluded. Time will tell what our final list of participants looks like or if there will be any further tweak to the rules dropped in to try and end this stand-off or as some late compromise. This has turned into a nightmare situation for the EBU trying to balance what they can do legally, “should” do morally and the best show they can achieve practically and neutrally. It’s not really in the interest of anyone for these growing alliances to turn this into a battle of exactly how many countries will or might withdraw and trying to weigh up who will be missed the least. There are definitely steps that the EBU could have taken to prevent things reaching this point but it is a very delicate position. I’ve called them out in the end of season review frequently but this is the definition of a Rock and a Hard Place. Personally, I’d prefer it if the revolting countries threatening to walk away gave this new administration led by Martin Green and the rule adaptions, even if they don’t go as far as they should a chance to work in practice this year, also considering the immediate and most objectionable political issues in the middle east are paused somewhat. That doesn’t excuse anyone for the non sportsman like voting campaigns, and certainly not for the entirely seperate type of campaigns that were occurring. I won’t predict what will or won’t happen, or if there even will be a vote, merely to say that it will be a shame if countries who have done nothing wrong themselves feel they can’t turn up because of the presence or not of one. The contest will go ahead in one way or another with a core who will be there whatever. In terms of on the actual scoreboard, on paper there’s a shift back to Eastern power if any country can find something catering to that taste, although the recent jury precedents make songs fitting that mould highly dangerous still, unless we do get a very different composition to usual.
We do have plenty of actual song and participant news to get through with an internal selection, song releases and national final names released including from the two perenial favourites Italy, Ukraine and Sweden. This article has gone on long enough so check back for an update on that front in the next week, as well as the fallout from whatever goes down at EBU HQ. Also, I am now selling merch! If you’d like to support the site and pick up a silly shirt or mug check out the store. New designs and products will drop periodically so check back or order quick for pre-christmas delivery!