Did Israel’s Government Advertise for Eurovision Votes?

In a year when nothing about Eurovision 2025 has been quiet, here comes another twist in the glitter cannon.

According to an investigation published by the EBU’s new fact-checking service Spotlight, the Israeli government paid for an international campaign encouraging people to vote for their Eurovision entry, ‘New Day Will Rise’ by Yuval Raphael.

Yes, you read that correctly. A state-backed ad blitz ran across 35 countries—from social media placements to targeted online messages—all with one goal: rack up those public televotes. And to be fair, it worked. Israel topped the public vote. It was the juries that rained on their parade, handing Austria the win with JJ’s ‘Wasted Love’.

You need proof though, surely…

Analysis of a YouTube account created on April 20, 2025, with the username @Vote4NewDayWillRise, published 89 videos between May 6 and May 16, amassing over 8.3 million views on the platform. Although the YouTube channel is not officially acknowledged as having any government ties, analysis of the Google Ads Transparency Center (Archived here) confirms that the advertisements were placed by the verified account of the Israeli Government Advertising Agency.

Ahead of both the semifinals and Grand Finals, the official social media accounts of the State of Israel amplified the videos across several platforms, including Instagram (Archived here), TikTok (Archived here), and X (Archived here).

Israeli embassies worldwide were also encouraging people to “vote 20 times” for Raphael ahead of both performances, including the embassies of Israel in the United Kingdom (Archived here), Sweden (Archived here), and Denmark (Archived here).

The body behind this research, Spotlight, is the EBU’s shiny new initiative for fighting misinformation and promoting transparency. Launched in early 2025, it brings together public broadcasters across Europe to dig into fishy claims, with a particular focus on stories that might otherwise fly under the radar. And it seems Eurovision is very much on their radar.

But… Eurovision ads are allowed, right?

Indeed, so before we all scream “fix!”, there is a technicality: Eurovision rules don’t explicitly ban promotional campaigns for entries. Plenty of delegations promote their acts. You can’t move for mentions of Malta, Finland, Sweden and the UK on the socials (other countries are available). But when the advertising comes directly from a government agency—and when that same entry has been the subject of political protests, statements, and walkouts—you can see how eyebrows might be raised.

State-funded Eurovision promo campaign

Their ‘‘scoop’ reveals that the Israeli Government Advertising Agency appeared to orchestrate a paid media push, marking the first confirmed case of a state-funded Eurovision promo campaign at this scale.

Eurovision rules explicitly state that the contest “is a non-political event”, and all participating broadcasters are responsible for ensuring that measures are taken to avoid the contest becoming politicised or “instrumentalised”.

The extensive promotion of Raphael notably omitted any mention of KAN, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, the entity the 24-year-old was representing, indicating the broadcaster was not directly involved in the advertising campaign.

EBU HQ is already busy sifting through complaints from national broadcasters about everything from vote miscounts to flag restrictions. They found time to issue a boilerplate response to (their own) fact checking agency:

Martin Green CBE, Director of the Eurovision Song Contest, said:

“The Eurovision Song Contest’s rules are designed to ensure a fair and neutral competition. These rules do not prohibit participating broadcasters or third parties such as record labels or others from promoting their entries online and elsewhere, as long as such promotion does not instrumentalize (sic) the Contest or breach its editorial guidelines. Many delegations employ paid promotion campaigns to support the song, profile, and future careers of their artists.”

The Spotlight report raises yet another awkward question for the Eurovision Song Contest team: if public votes can be swayed by state money, are we still judging the music—or the marketing?

In a contest that thrives on spectacle, this latest development might just be the most quietly controversial one yet.