European Broadcasting Union to look into Eurovision voting system after Israel campaign

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is going to review the way countries recruit votes during the Eurovision Song Contest, the director for the event, Martin Green, wrote on Friday in an open letter on the organization’s website. This is in response to the high score that Israel got from the public during last weekend’s edition. The country was given no points by many of the international juries but received 12 points from the public after the country had campaigned online to gain votes.

“One aspect the EBU will be looking at is the promotion of our acts by their delegations and associated parties.,” Green wrote. “Such promotion is allowed under our rules and acts to celebrate the artists, increase their profile, and launch future careers. But we want to ensure that such promotion is not disproportionally affecting the natural mobilization of communities and diasporas we see in all entertainment audience voting.”

Green also confirmed that the EBU is going to look into the number of votes that can be made by telephone. The maximum is currently 20 votes per payment method. “This is designed to ensure that audiences of all ages can vote for more than one of their favorite songs, and there is no current evidence that it disproportionally affects the final result.”

Despite this, the EBU confirmed that they will go along with requests to look into the system of voting by phone.

Several countries were angered by the televising system. Spain and Belgium were among the countries pushing for an investigation into the maximum number of votes that each person can do. Israel received 12 points from both countries, but no points from the jury.

Israel’s participation in Eurovision was a controversial subject due to the ongoing war in Gaza. The EBU responded to the controversy by saying that the song festival is “not a political event.”

EBU Director of Media Jean Philip De Tender told VRT on Friday that it is also being considered to allow the professional jury to play a role in the semi-finals again.

AVROTROS and the NPO will not respond to the announcement made by Martin Green, the public broadcasters said on Friday. “We are aware of the comments made by Martin Green on behalf of the EBU,” AVROTROS said. "As we have indicated before, we (AVROTROS and NPO) want to discuss our concerns and questions about the apolitical nature of the Song Contest within the EBU. We believe it is important that this discussion takes place with them and not via the media."