Israel’s Eurovision singer Noam Bettan was booed by pro-Palestine supporters during his performance but still qualified during the competition’s first semi-final on Tuesday.
It was bad luck for British star Boy George, however, who appeared as a guest performer on San Marino’s entry, which failed to survive the vote.
The show featured 15 performers all competing to qualify for Saturday’s final including Sweden, Croatia and current favourites, Finland.
Israel sailed through to the final of the competition, with the lovestruck pop song Michelle, performed by 28-year-old Bettan.
The contest’s festive atmosphere has been upended in recent years by a controversy over Israel’s military action in Gaza. Five countries have boycotted the 2026 event, including seven-time winners Ireland.
Bettan faced a mixed reception during the semi-final as a few audience members booed and shouted anti-Israeli slogans, while others chanted his name in support.
The negative reaction to Bettan’s performance was audible on the TV broadcast, after Austrian broadcaster ORF, which is hosting the show, said it would not censor protests or negative reactions to any of the contestants.
In a statement after the show, ORF and Eurovision organisers the EBU said the audience member had been ‘close to a microphone’ and ‘loudly expressed their views’ – both as Israel prepared to take the stage and during their song.
‘They were later removed by security for continuing to disturb the audience. Three other people were also removed from the arena by security for disruptive behaviour,’ said the statement.
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The semi-final, held at Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle, saw 10 countries qualify for Saturday’s grand finale including Finnish duo Pete Parkkonen and Linda Lampenius, who are the current favourites to win.
Portugal, Georgia, Montenegro, Estonia and San Marino were eliminated from the competition following a popular vote, with the latter seeing The Culture Club singer Boy George join its entrant Senhit to perform the song Superstar, which he co-wrote.
Elsewhere during the contest, viewers were left furious over ‘sound issues’ as soon into the broadcast many on X complained that a lot of the backing music was drowning out the hosts Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski, as well as the commentary.
They penned: ‘Why is the mixing so weird and making the backing music louder than the hosts. Really wish the @bbc was better at sound in general but the first year I’ve had an issue with #Eurovision :-(.’,
‘Can the @BBC sort out their sound department. I can’t hear the commentary at all! #Eurovision.’,
‘#eurovision the background music during these esc fans segment makes it all feel like AI.’,
‘#Eurovision Is the sound a bit off tonight? A bit hollow?’,
‘Is the sound really quiet this year? #Eurovisión #bbceurovsion.’,
‘Is the sound terrible for everyone? #eurovision.’,
‘The sound is so horrible and it’s ruining the songs it’s sad and unfair #Eurovision.’,
‘why is the sound so muddy #Eurovision.’
Huge disappointment for British star Boy George as The Culture Club singer appeared as a guest performer on San Marino’s entry, which failed to survive the vote
It comes as earlier on Tuesday it was revealed that an Irish TV channel will play a Eurovision-themed episode of Father Ted in place of the singing contest’s final after boycotting the event over Israel‘s participation.
On Saturday night, RTÉ, the country’s national broadcaster, will air the sitcom’s iconic 1996 episode ‘A Song For Europe’, in which priests Ted and Dougal enter the ‘Eurosong’ contest, a parody of Eurovision, to represent Ireland.
The pair perform a disastrous minute-long song called ‘My Lovely Horse’ and end up receiving ‘nul points’ after plotting to stop Ireland from winning and having to host the competition the following year.
The Eurovision Song Contest began in Austria on Tuesday, but divisions over Israel’s participation are hanging over the event’s 70th anniversary.
Host city Vienna has been decked in hearts and the contest’s ‘United by Music’ motto this week, in which singers and bands from 35 countries will compete onstage for Europe’s musical crown.
But Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland have decided to boycott the competition over Israel’s inclusion.
Ireland has won Eurovision seven times, making it the most successful country in the competition’s history along with Sweden.
But RTÉ said it would not be competing in Eurovision for the first time in 61 years last December, citing the ‘appalling loss of lives in Gaza’.
Eurovision viewers were also left furious over ‘sound issues’ during the first live semi-final (hosts Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski seen)
But soon into the broadcast many on X complained that a lot of the backing music was drowning out the hosts Victoria and Michael, as well as the commentary
Israeli singer Bettan was among 15 acts competing for votes from viewers and national juries on Tuesday’s semi-final at the Wiener Stadthalle arena.
Like last year’s Israeli competitor, Yuval Raphael, he has practised singing while being booed.
The Irish website Extra.ie has congratulated RTÉ on the scheduling, which it described as ‘genius trolling’.
Slovenia, meanwhile, said it would broadcast a documentary about Palestine.
‘Instead of the Eurovision circus, the national television programme will be coloured by the thematic program series “Voices of Palestine”,’ Slovenian broadcaster RTV said.
Spain‘s RTVE will run its own musical special, ‘The House of Music’.
The boycotts are a financial blow to Eurovision, which is funded largely by participating broadcasters, and to public broadcasters at a time when many are under financial pressure from government funding cuts and competition from social media.
Long a forum for good-natured and sometimes more pointed national rivalries, Eurovision has found it hard to separate pop and politics in recent years.
Russia was expelled in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Tensions rose again after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed some 1,200 people, and Israel’s subsequent campaign in Gaza that has left more than 70,000 people dead.
The last two Eurovision contests have seen pro-Palestine protests both outside the venues and inside, forcing organisers to clamp down on political flag-waving.
Several performers and countries have called for the exclusion of Israel, which has competed in Eurovision since 1973, one of a few non-European countries to do so.
The 2024 contest in Malmo, Sweden, and last year’s event in Basel, Switzerland, saw pro-Palestine protests that called for Israel to be expelled over the conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza and allegations it ran a rule-breaking marketing campaign to get votes for its contestant after Israel finished second last year.
When organisers declined to kick Israel out, five countries announced in December that they would not participate this year.
The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, has toughened voting rules in response to the vote-rigging allegations, halving the number of votes per person to 10 and tightening safeguards against ‘suspicious or coordinated voting activity’.
Israel last year got 83 per cent of its points from the public for its song ‘New Day Will Rise’ and came second overall.
The winner, Austria’s ‘Wasted Love’, got just 41 per cent of its votes from the public, and had to rely on the support of national juries to power its way to the top.
Posts and photos from the Israel X account run by Israel’s foreign ministry and dated on the day that Israel competed in last year’s semi-final had encouraged people to vote for its singer Yuval Raphael, adding that ‘you can vote up to 20 times’.
‘We saw some activity last year which we could describe as disproportionate marketing and promotional activity that we felt was out of sync with the nature of the show, so we put some rules in about that,’ Eurovision Song Contest Director Martin Green told Reuters, without referring directly to the posts.
Several pro-Palestine demonstrations are planned in Vienna during Eurovision week, and security is tight, with police officers from across Austria deployed in the capital and support from forces in neighbouring Germany.
