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We here at OnEurope are a broad church and welcome discussion and contra points of view on all manner of subjects, even those that people don’t like to talk about. One of those is Israel. I’ve got my views and others have theirs. In this long read, constant friend of this site and Israeli Diaspora member in The Netherlands Shai Dagoni, explains their view on all things Israeli and Eurovision over the last couple of years. If this will trigger you, turn back now and, perhaps, don’t comment (cos I will filter out douchebags!) – If you want a thought provoking read from a perspective often ignored in fan media, make Shai welcome 😉
It is now mid July 2025. Eurovision final 2025 was already 2 months ago, but that final has ended with such controversy, that it has fuelled a heated discussion about the voting, especially Israel’s televoting results in the final of Eurovision 2025. That discussion was somewhat imbalanced where people were throwing unfounded accusations.
The article was born out of the unease regarding this discussion about Israel’s televote results in Eurovision 2025, a discussion that is lacking nuance. It’s all black and white and no grey area.
The ending or maybe the beginning
Eurovision 2025 has ended with a bang and a drama. Not because of the winner of the whole contest, but because Israel managed to win 2nd place with 357 points and after winning the televote with 297. This wasn’t well received and caused a meltdown in Eurovision quarters on the internet.
Accusations of vote manipulation and even vote buying are circulating around. Not that anyone has any proof for this but under the mom: “Israel is the bad guy right now, so let’s accuse Israel with everything we can, and everyone will believe us, because it’s Israel, you know”, a lot of unfunded accusations are circulating around. With these accusations comes the demand to expel Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that those who vocally want to expel Israel from the contest are also the ones who accuse Israel of voting manipulation.
One thing needs to be said – These accusations are echoing old anti semitic calls. In the past it was Jews have money and are controlling the world. Now it is: Israel has enough power and money to manipulate the results at will. Both notions are coming from deep hate and fear.
There is a demand from the EBU to show full transparency of the voting data’s. It should be no surprise that the first 2 broadcasters which came with this demand were the Belgian (vrt) and the Spanish(rtve) broadcasters. Remember, these 2 broadcasters have shown a message regarding the situation in Gaza during the Israeli postcard. Rtve has shown this massage during the semi final and was warned it will get fined if it will repeat the same during the final yet they did it again. So what does a broadcaster feeling the heat at the back of his neck? Diverting attention by placing a question mark on the integrity of the voting system. And let’s face it, the 12 points from the Spanish and Belgian televoters were a slap in the face for the 2 broadcasters. It seems that the public wasn’t really aligned with the broadcasters’ sentiment.
The system is not perfect, but we knew this already, didn’t we?
The huge televoting for Israel, in the last 2 years, has basically exposed to the full the weakness and the flows of the current voting system. Not that it wasn’t known before, but the flows and weaknesses were used for “the good cause of acceptable countries”.
2 examples come to mind:
Stockholm 2016 – the 1st time we saw the split voting system – Michal Szpak the Polish representative, finished after the juries vote at the bottom 3(I think it was last, but I can’t remember) with 7 points, only to receive 222 points from the public( I think he was 3rd) ending overall 8th. This huge televote result was attributed to Polish diaspora voting.
Turin 2022 – Kalush Orchestra, the Ukraine representative, stormed to victory after winning the public vote with 439 points. This huge televote result and win was attributed to sympathy vote, due to Russia invading Ukraine in February 2022.
Remember the above-mentioned reasons, it will become handy later.
I don’t remember any broadcaster, especially the Belgian or the Spanish one raising, at that time, any concerns about the integrity of the televote voting. It is called hypocrisy. When the result doesn’t bother you, you accept it. When the results don’t suit you you raise concerns about the whole process.
Let’s be clear about 1 thing: The EBU should be transparent about the public voting and publish all data they have regarding the voting. Not publishing the data undermines people’s trust in the system. However, these demands for transparency should have come much earlier in time and not just because you don’t like the result 1 country in particular received in 2025.
The televote – How does this work?
The televote appeared first in the 1997’s contest, when 5 countries were experimenting with televote. The 1998’s contest was the first contest decided by a televote. In the course of the years the juries were brought back to balance out the televote results. The juries were absent from the voting until 2008 and since that year they are part of the voting system.
The current voting system, where the voting of the juries and the televoters is separately revealed, is 2016.
The televote is very simple to understand. Each participating country can vote for each other country and you cannot vote for your own country. All voting from the public goes to a big pot of votes and the country which received the majority of the votes, will receive the 12 points from that country. For example: If 2000 people voted from the U.K., and if the majority of the votes went to Irelnd, Ireland will receive the 12 points from the U.K. public vote. According to the rules, each phone can vote up to 20 times.The EBU claim that this rule of voting was meant as stimulant so the whole family can vote, but let’s face it that this is bullshit explanation as the sole reason for this amount of votes per phone, is generating revenue for the EBU and for the broadcasters. This revenue helps keep Eurovision alive.
In 2023 , a new voting country was added to the game. The Rest of the World country, functioning as the 38th country. This group contains countries around the world, which do not participate in Eurovision but where interest in Eurovision is high. It fits the goal of the EBU to make Eurovision accessible to everyone on the globe. In order to facilitate the voting of the Rest of the World, a new voting system was developed. You could also cast your vote with a credit card. Also when voting with a credit card you can vote 20 times per card. When voting with your phone, your IP address(unless you are using VPN) was your ID for the voting, and this is how you could be limited to 20 votes. By voting with a credit card, the credit card is your ID.Needless to say that this voting was developed to generate revenue and keep Eurovision alive.
Unfortunately, the credit card voting system is exposing, even more, the weakness of the system. In theory, and apparently this is what happened in 2025, you can vote 20 times by your phone and afterwards you can vote another 20 times with your credit card. If you are in possession of more than 1 credit card, you can vote 20 times on each credit card you have.A motivated group of voters can cast way more votes than intended when the system was developed.
There is no doubt that the televote system must be reformed and changed.
Changes like reducing the numbers of votes per person, should be considered.However this may cause loss of revenue for EBU/broadcasters which will result in increasing participation fee, something which is already a financial burden for most broadcasters.
Another point to address is how to avoid multiple voting from people with more than 1 credit card?
Maybe voting by credit card should be made more expensive.Maybe you should have less number of votes you can cast by a credit card than what you can cast by phone.A combination of both should also be considered
Gert Waterink, a Dutch blogger, has suggested in his blog , a system that will split the voting to a sort of super final. However, I think his suggestion will make the voting more complicated and less engaging for the audience. I fear that his suggested system will make the show even longer than it is now, mainly due to the need to explain the system to the audience, more than once. Last but not least- According to his system, only the top 3 of each heat + the best of the overall, receive points, it would seem that not every vote counts. You vote for a country, you have spent some money on it, and if this country doesn’t reach the top 3, your vote gets lost. Admittingly, this happens, but to a lesser extent, in the current system. But 10 countries receiving points from each country’s televote, is more than only 3 countries receiving their points from the public.
And if we are in the subject of voting, do we really need a voting window of 2 and half hours. Again, it’s all done to increase revenue, but on the other hand it gives too much time to facilitate multiple voting.
One last thing, before continuing with this article – In 2023 and 2024 the televote winners(Finland and Croatia), only managed 2nd place behind the winner, which in both years was the juries’ winner.
The fandom – they wanted a change in the system, which will give more power , more say to the public, so that the public winner will be the overall winner.
Come 2025 – Israel wins the televote and what the fandom say? – they thank the juries for preventing Israel from winning. The same people who wanted a change in the system for the benefit of the televote, are now calling to reform the televote system and strengthen the juries. A turn of 180 degrees. Inconsistency in the fandom is such a delight for hypocrites. In this case, it’s not about the song, it’s about the country.
The campaign and how effective was it?
Right at the end of the 2025 contest, there were complaints about a massive Israeli campaign, which was done to generate more votes for the Israeli song. In the Eurovision circles the main complaint was that it was too much and the ads were everywhere and you couldn’t avoid them.
It seems that a lot of people out there think that Israel televote can only be a result of this campaign. Later on it has been discovered that the Israel Government Advertising Company has financed this campaign, which fueled another discussion about this campaign. As EBU said, campaigning is not forbidden, but the role of a government agency is a bit problematic, not the least because it creates an uneven playground, where those who can afford such a campaign have an advantage over those which can not afford such a campaign. If I am honest, I would prefer the least possible government involvement in promoting a Eurovision song. I may be naive, but a song should be able to stand alone without a campaign to back it up. On the other hand, if any other country would have done what Israel has done, and gotten itself a good result, everyone would be applauding this country and there would have been far less complaints about it. It is called: Double standards. One country will be applauded while another will be criticised, when using the same measures.
But in the noise around the campaign, no one seemed to be asking a valid question: How effective is/was this campaign? – The Israelis think that it is effective – the televote results as a proof. The Eurovision fans think it is effective- again the televotes result as a proof, but for the Eurovision fans there is something else playing here. Putting the blame on the campaign,allow them to deny/ignore any other reasons for an Israeli success. It is as if the fans say, the televoters for Israel were under the influence of a massive campaign and didn’t know what they were doing. Free will is not an option when it comes to voting for a song from Israel and yes, I am cynical.
So back to my question: How effective was this campaign? How many people did it reach? No doubt it reached Eurovision fans, because like many online marketing campaigns, it reached anyone who had any related hashtag about Eurovision in their social media account. You can blame the algorithms of big tech companies for that. But what about the casual viewers of Saturday night? Were they aware of this campaign?Maybe, but we do not know. And what about the voters, how many of them were exposed to the campaign before they picked up the phone and voted for Israel? Some of them were exposed to the big billboard advertisement on Time Square, but that’s it. Whether it has influenced their voting pattern is unknown and is based on pure speculation.
But when making an online campaign you should be aware not to overdo your campaign. This article gives you tips on how to make sure you don’t annoy your target audience during an online marketing campaign.
Well it seems, the Israelis didn’t listen to this lesson, because it seemed they were doing everything the article suggested not to do, causing their target audience quite an annoyance, making their online campaign less effective than they thought it would have been..
Here are 2 questions regarding the effectiveness of the campaign: How many people voted for Israel because of the campaign? And what was their percentage of the total voters? The answer for these questions is – WE DON’T KNOW.
The other reasons
Beside the campaign, there could be various reasons , which could explain the Israel televoting success.
People voted for the Israeli song because they liked the song and thought it was the best:
Phil of this parish had difficulties believing that this was the best of the night. In fact, in the Eurovision countdown of this site “New Day Will Rise” only achieved 21st place in the ranking. The fandom – Most of them didn’t like the song. That is, if they have ever listened to the song and depending from where you get your information.
So let’s go to the Dutch variant of OnEurope: The site is: https://www.songfestivalweblog.nl/, where we have 3 moments of the reaction to the Israeli song. First moment, When the song was revealed. 2nd moment, their own countdown. Last but not least, on the day of the final. To the mentioned moments, you can read the reactions before and after semi 2.
It’s a mixed bag of reactions. Some don’t like the song. Some don’t think Israel should have even been in Basel, but are not really reacting to the song.Some like the song very much, and see it as the best of the bunch. In this category there are those who say they will vote for Israel as much as they can. The most interesting reactions are those who admit that the song is good but either admit they won’t vote for Israel( something I have respect for) or think that Israel shouldn’t be participating at all. Some of those who like the song, thought it was better than its predecessor from 2024, others thought 2024’s song was better than this one.
It’s only one of many sites dedicated to Eurovision. It’s not even representative of what’s going on on the internet, when it comes to Eurovision. But if the site where you get your Eurovision information doesn’t cover Israel, close comments when covering Israel or close all comments, you don’t really know what people were thinking about “New Day Will Rise”. And don’t forget those who, out of fear for any negative reaction, didn’t disclose what they thought about the song and yet voted for Israel. Unfortunately, even here on this site, there weren’t that many comments during the countdown, so it is really hard to know what people were thinking about the 2025 Israeli entry.
And this is even before we discuss the reaction videos on the song. Let’s just say that most of them were very positive about the song.
Diaspora voting:
A combination of a Jewish community combined with the presence of an ex-Israeli, living around the world. If you accept the Polish diaspora voting from 2016. Or if you know that there is a Lithuanian diaspora in Ireland and U.K., which votes for the Lithuanian song year in, year out, you should also be ready to accept the existence of an Israeli / Jewish diaspora. However, it needs to be said that this is a new phenomenon. Starting to show up since 2024. Before that year, there were bits of it showing up but not as strong as 2024 and 2025.
So what has changed? Where is this coming from? The answer for that is the Hamas terror attack on 07/10/2023. Ever since, the very existence of Israel is in question by pro-Palestinians who call “Free Palestine” of “From the River to the Sea Palestine Will be Free”, presenting this as a legitimate call and forgetting to mention that such calls are basically calling to replace the state of Israel as a whole by something different. In many countries, Jewish people are advised to conceal their identity and Jewish people do not feel safe. Antisemitism is on the rise. And what do Jewish and ex-Israeli do when facing this situation? They do the only thing they can and support massively an Israeli song on Eurovision. It helped that both 2024 and 2025 songs were songs they could support heartily, as both songs also reflected the mood in Israel in both years.
Support/sympathy for Israel or anti pro-Plasetinian sentiment or even anti government sentiment:
Remember Ukraine in 2022. Its victory that year was largely attributed to a massive sympathy vote. While most people can see the 2022’s sympathy vote as justified, they have hard times understanding or accepting a sympathy vote for Israel. Ukraine is portrayed as the victim, Israel is portrayed as the aggressor. People just forget that if the Hamas terror attacks never have happened, Israel would not have to react as forcefully as they did and still do. Not many know, but during the final, there was an attempt to invade the stage during Yuval Raphael’s performance. The attempt failed due to a swift reaction of security in the hall. I can only speculate how many extra televote Yuval would have received, if the stage invasion had been successful.
Since 07/10/2023, there have been a lot of pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Demonstrations that aren’t always peaceful and sometimes end with violence and plundering. The pro-Plestinian aren’t doing their cause any favour with these demonstrations as people are just tired of it. People want to have their quiet life back. Those demonstrations are also fueling anti immigration sentiment, where the government is being blamed for the situation. Of course, because of the anti immigration sentiment, far right parties are calling their supporters to vote for Israel in Eurovision. I am not feeling at ease with this support. I would rather not have this kind of support for Israel. It just feels wrong.
Are there any other reasons for Israel’s televote success in 2024 and 2025? Probably. The point is that you cannot pinpoint this success to any particular reason. There are various reasons for this result.
Some of you may ask – “Shai, did you vote in the 2025 Eurovision final? Who did you vote for?”
The answer for this is that I did vote in the final. I voted 1 time for Luxembourg, France and Switzerland and 12 times for Israel. In all cases I voted because I liked the song and performance and in the case of Israel, as an ex-Israeli, I also belong to the diaspora voting. It does make it a bit complicated, doesn’t it?
Which brings us to the same question I have asked regarding the voting because of the campaign.
How many people voted for Israel because of the above-mentioned reasons? And what was their percentage of the total voters? The answer for these questions is – WE DON’T KNOW. And we will never know, even if the EBU will decide to be transparent about the voting numbers.
We don’t know because when you vote in Eurovision, you aren’t asked to provide the reason for your voting. You vote from your own free will and you pay the costs for voting, from your own pocket. It remains any voter free choice, when it comes to voting on Eurovision, no matter what the reason for your voting.
The juries’ vote or the curious case of the Irish jury vote
In 2024 and 2025 Israel, in my opinion, has sent 2 strong entries. In a normal year or if the songs were representing any different country, those 2 entries, which were jury bait through and through, would have been marked high by the juries as the professionals from the music industry, they are supposed to be. They should have recognized a good song when presented with one. Under different circumstances, I suspect it would have been at least top 5 in each jury vote. It never happened.
The juries are supposed to apply certain criteria when judging a song: Vocal capacity, stage performance, composition and Originality, overall impression and apparently Hit potential. Well, when it comes to judging “New Day Will Rise”, which meets 3 or 4 of the above-mentioned criteria, they just ignored those criteria.
One reason for this is that the juries are also human beings and they are not separated from what happens in the world and have, no doubt, opinions about Israel and what happens in Gaza. It is enough to say that one of the Belgian juries was someone who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. You can say with no doubt that judging the Israel song objectively is a hard task to ask.
Bearing this in mind, we come to the Irish juries vote. Ireland is the most critical land when it comes to Israel. It’s a pro-Palestinian country, through and through. They even recognize a Palestinian state. So no one expects them to even show sympathy to an Israeli song in Eurovision. Come 2025 and to my big surprise the Irish jury rewarded Israel with 7 points(4th place in the ranking). The splitting of the vote was as follows: 2 juries placed Israel at the bottom of the pile(ranking 23 and 20) and 3 juries placed Israel in the top 5(ranking at 2,4 and 3). And if the Irish juries could set aside what they think about Israel and somehow they have managed to judge the song rather objectively, I would have expected other juries to do the same. Unfortunately, it never happened.
In 2025 Israel received 60 points from the juries. If Israel would have received the same amount of points Finland has received from the juries in 2023(150 points, if you really want to know), and if the televote results remain the same, Israel would have won the 2025 contest.
People out there say the televote system should be reformed, which I agree with. I would also argue that the jury’s vote should also be reformed. There are several questions regarding this: Should the number of jury members be increased from 5? Should the juries judge all 26 songs in the final, is this not too much to ask from them? Should the EBU adjust the rather vague criteria for judging a song in the final? How do we make sure that all songs in all genres are judged objectively? How do we make the juries’ vote less predictable?
To be honest, I have no answers for all of these questions, I just know that both televote and jury vote in Eurovision should be reformed and overhauled, so people have more trust in the system than they do now.
Hope you enjoy reading and that it has made you think a bit. Nothing is black and white as it seems. Even Eurovision has its grey areas.
Until next time.
Shai
