The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 was the 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted of two semi-finals on 12 and 14 May and a final on 16 May 2026, held at in Vienna, Austria, and presented by Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski, with acting as the green room host. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (ORF), which staged the event after winning the for with the song "Wasted Love" by JJ.
Broadcasters from thirty-five countries participated in the contest, two fewer than in 2025 and the smallest number of participants since , before the introduction of semi-finals. , , the , , and opted not to participate in protest at 's inclusion in the context of the Gaza war, matching the record for the largest number of boycotting countries in the contest's history set in , while , , and returned after absences from recent editions.
The winner was with the song "Bangaranga", performed by Dara and written by her with Anne Judith Wik, Cristian Tarcea, and Dimitris Kontopoulos. The song won both the jury vote and televote, the first entry to do so since , and gave Bulgaria its first win in the contest. , , , and rounded out the top five, with Romania equaling its best placements from and while achieving its highest points total to date. failed to qualify for the final for the first time, leaving as the only country to have always progressed from the semi-finals since their introduction in .
The EBU reported that the contest had a television audience of 131 million viewers in 35 European markets, a decrease of 35 million viewers from the previous edition and the lowest viewing figures since the , which attracted 103 million viewers.
Location
The 2026 contest took place in Vienna, Austria, following the country's victory at the with the song "Wasted Love", performed by JJ. It was the third time that Austria has hosted the contest, having previously done so in and , both times also in Vienna. The selected venue for the contest was the 16,152-seat , which had previously hosted the contest in 2015.
In addition to the main venue, the was the location of the Eurovision Village, which hosted performances by contest participants and local artists as well as screenings of the live shows for the general public. The Prater Dome nightclub hosted the EuroClub, which organised the official after-parties and private performances by contest participants. The "Turquoise Carpet" event was held on 10 May 2026 at the , with the contestants and their delegations walking across the Eurovision Village at to be presented before accredited press and fans, before ending at the Vienna City Hall, where the opening ceremony followed.
Bidding phase
Following Austria's victory in the 2025 contest, the host broadcaster, (ORF), held a press conference at which its director, , identified the suitability of venues and proximity to airports as the principal criteria in the selection of the host city. ORF's programme director, , observed that no large arenas had been newly built in the country in recent years, but encouraged municipalities with viable proposals to submit bids.
A number of Austrian cities expressed interest in hosting the 2026 contest within days of the nation's victory in 2025. On 18 May 2025, the mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig, confirmed the city's intention to bid. The same day, Graz announced that it was examining a potential bid, with mayor Elke Kahr singling out the as a suitable venue. The , also in Graz, was put forward as a potential venue by its concert manager and operator, Klaus Leutgeb. Also on 18 May, Innsbruck and Wels confirmed that they would bid, with the and a new exhibition hall respectively proposed as venues. Oberwart likewise declared its interest in hosting. On 19 May, the mayor of St. Pölten, , proposed the as a venue. On 26 May, Ebreichsdorf submitted a proposal to host the contest in a temporary venue.
ORF launched the bidding process on 2 June 2025 by opening a window for cities and municipalities to declare their interest. Those candidates received the detailed tender documents and were required to submit their bids by 4 July. Ebreichsdorf withdrew from the process on 15 June, followed by Oberwart on 21 June, Graz on 27 June, and Wels on 1 July. Vienna and Innsbruck were the only cities to submit bids by the deadline. On 20 August, the EBU and ORF announced Vienna as the host city.
Key: Host city Submitted a bid City Venue Notes Ebreichsdorf Temporary arena The proposed venue was a temporary arena with a capacity for 20,000 people. Another venue for a public viewing of the final with a capacity of 30,000 would have been set up. Withdrew from bidding on 15 June. Graz Stadthalle Graz Withdrew from bidding on 27 June 2025. Schwarzl Freizeit Zentrum Innsbruck ^OlympiahalleHosted the figure skating and ice hockey events at both the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympic Games. Oberwart Messe Oberwart Withdrew from bidding on 21 June 2025. Vienna†Hosted the . Messe WelsJoint bid, with Wels hosting the contest proper. The venue was under construction at the time of the bidding process, and was completed in March 2026. Withdrew from bidding on 1 July 2025.
Participants
Eligibility for participation in the Eurovision Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with active EBU membership capable of receiving the contest via the Eurovision network and broadcasting the contest live nationwide. The EBU issues an invitation to participate in the contest to all active members.
On 15 December 2025, the EBU announced that broadcasters from 35 countries would participate in the 2026 contest. returned after a three-year absence, returned after a two-year absence, and returned after a one-year absence. , , the , , and , all of which participated in 2025, opted not to take part in protest at the inclusion of in the context of the Gaza war, as well as the Israeli government's attempts to influence the results in the previous two editions. This marked the largest boycott in the contest's history since .
The contest featured two returning artists: Estonia's Vanilla Ninja had previously represented , and San Marino's Senhit had previously represented the country in and (and was set to do so in before that year's event was cancelled). In addition, Poland's Alicja was also set to represent the country in ; Aliona Moon, who provided backing vocals for Moldova's Satoshi, had previously represented and provided backing vocals for Pasha Parfeni in ; Georgia's Bzikebi had previously won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 for ; and Belgium's Essyla had previously represented the country in Eurovision Choir 2019 as part of the choir Almakalia.
+ Eurovision Song Contest 2026 participants Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) RTSH Alis "" Albanian AMPTV Simón "" English SBS Delta Goodrem "Eclipse" English ORF Cosmó "" German İTV Jiva "Just Go" English, Azerbaijani RTBF Essyla "Dancing on the Ice" English BNT Dara "Bangaranga" English HRT Lelek "" Croatian CyBC Antigoni "Jalla" English, Greek ČT Daniel Zizka "Crossroads" English DR Søren Torpegaard Lund "" Danish ERR Vanilla Ninja "Too Epic to Be True" English Sven Lõhmus Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen "" Finnish Monroe "" French GPB Bzikebi "On Replay" English SWR Sarah Engels "Fire" English ERT Akylas "" Greek IPBC Noam Bettan "Michelle" French, Hebrew, English RAI Sal Da Vinci "" Italian LSM Atvara "" Latvian LRT Lion Ceccah "" Lithuanian, English RTL Eva Marija "Mother Nature" English PBS Aidan "" English, Maltese TRM Satoshi "" Romanian RTCG Tamara Živković "" Montenegrin Boris Subotić NRK Jonas Lovv "Ya Ya Ya" English TVP Alicja "Pray" English RTP Bandidos do Cante "" Portuguese TVR Alexandra Căpitănescu "Choke Me" English SMRTV Senhit "Superstar" English RTS Lavina "" Serbian SVT Felicia "My System" English SRG SSR Veronica Fusaro "Alice" English Leléka "" English, Ukrainian BBC Look Mum No Computer "" English, German
Boycotts due to Israeli participation
The Gaza war has rendered Israel's participation in the contest a subject of controversy, prompting calls for the country's exclusion as well as demonstrations against its involvement at both the and 2025 editions. Israel's 2024 entry "Hurricane" was also controversial, as an earlier version titled "October Rain" was seen as referencing the 7 October attacks on Israel, a breach of political neutrality rules, which led to it only being accepted by the EBU after a rewrite. Israeli government officials ran advertising campaigns to boost public votes and encourage support for their country's entries in 2024 and 2025, which was cited as one of the factors leading to Israel finishing in fifth place in 2024 and second in 2025, in both cases placing within the top two of the public vote. The existence of such campaigns for the 2024 entry was confirmed by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and similar campaigns for the 2025 entry were detailed by Eurovision News Spotlight, a fact-checking and open-source intelligence initiative by the EBU. The 2025 set of advertisements, published by the Israel Government Advertising Agency, received over 68 million total impressions. Several participating broadcasters called for a rework of the televoting system and an independent audit of individual countries' televoting results following the 2025 final.
Ahead of the 2026 contest, broadcasters from , the , , and announced their intention to boycott if Israel were allowed to compete, with the latter three also citing the Israeli advertising campaigns in the previous two editions as one of the reasons. Other broadcasters indicated their intention to participate, dependent on certain conditions being fulfilled by the EBU. The contest's reference group extended its confirmation deadline, before which broadcasters are able to withdraw applications for the 2026 contest without incurring a financial penalty, from 13 October to mid-December to allow for a wide-ranging consultation with broadcasters on Israeli participation, which was set to be determined at the EBU's general assembly on 4 and 5 December. A special general assembly session was planned to be held in early November to discuss and vote on Israel's representation in the contest, but it was cancelled following the implementation of a ceasefire deal and peace plan aimed at ending the war. The 4 December assembly ultimately voted in favour of adopting a series of amendments to the voting system, bypassing a proposed separate vote on Israel's participation and allowing the country to compete. As a result, broadcasters from the four aforementioned countries went ahead with their boycott, joined by on 10 December, with the Irish, Slovenian and Spanish broadcasters also stating they would not broadcast the contest. This would mark the first time that the event would not be broadcast in Ireland since 1963, in Slovenia since 1985, and in Spain since 1961. The absence of Spain would also mark the first time that the "Big Five" would be incomplete since its expansion with in . The boycott was described by several media outlets as "the biggest crisis in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest". Protesting the decision to permit Israel, Nemo, who won for , returned their trophy to the EBU. Charlie McGettigan, who won for alongside Paul Harrington, later stated that he would return his trophy as well.
The following countries' broadcasters confirmed they would boycott in 2026: Although RÚV planned to select its entry for 2026 through its traditional national final , on 8 September 2025, Stefán Jón Hafstein, chairman of RÚV's board of directors, stated that the broadcaster's participation is "uncertain" and would be dependent on whether Israel is allowed to compete. On 26 November, RÚV's board voted to recommend Israel be excluded, and on 10 December, six days after the assembly vote, it stated that it would boycott the contest but still broadcast the shows.