«A song from Gaza. A vote that goes beyond the Eurovision Song Contest.” This is the appeal of Ceasefire Now shared on Instagram by Michael Stipe at the start of Eurovision this evening and in parallel with the unsuccessful appeals for the boycott of Israel. The contestant representing Tel Aviv, Noam Bettan with Michellewill perform this evening in Vienna during the first semi-final.
The song recommended by the singer of REM, the actor Mark Ruffalo and the organizations Ceasefire Now, Artists4Ceasefire and Oxfam International is obviously not in competition. It's about The Drone Song by Ahmed Abu Amsha, a music teacher from Gaza who transformed the sound of Israeli drones into a song and who uses music to help traumatized children (see also video at the end of the article). The sending to share it is done “not to win, but for justice and freedom, and to end Israel's ongoing genocide, illegal occupation, siege and destruction of Palestinian cultural heritage.”
The appeal: «Vote by sharing this song, as an act of solidarity with Palestine. Culture and identity are fundamental human rights.”
The Eurovision Song Contest has always been an instrument of soft power and also a political arena, but never before has the clash been as strong as this year. Five countries, including one of the Big 5, marched in protest against Israel's participation: Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain.
The controversy over the strategies used to influence the popular vote, in which Israel invests and always places well, has led the organizers to make some changes to the regulations: the maximum number of votes that each person can express has been reduced from 20 to 10; “campaigns by third parties – including governments or their agencies – capable of distorting the vote” are prohibited; the professional juries in the semi-finals, which had been eliminated in the last editions, have been reinstated; each jury will have seven members instead of five, with two jurors aged between 18 and 25.
This year's Eurovision Song Contest has decided to discourage large-scale campaign including calls to vote 10 times for a single artist, because it is not in line with the spirit of the competition. For this reason, four days ago the Contest management contacted the delegation of Kan, the Israeli public television, asking to remove videos of this type that had been broadcast. But there are also other ways to ingratiate oneself with the public and juries of other countries, which as is known cannot vote for their competitor. Here's one: Israeli Noam Bettan singing Forever yes.
⭐️🇮🇱 With love from Israel to Italy 🇮🇱🇮🇹
Israel's Eurovision 2026 representative, Noam Bettan, performs his own rendition of Italy's contest entry “Per Semper Sì” by Sal Da Vinci — a celebration of music, culture, and friendship across borders. pic.twitter.com/cQ48jS76ba
— Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) May 10, 2026
This evening the first of the two semi-finals will therefore be held at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna and will be broadcast starting at 9pm on Rai 2, RaiPlay and Radio 2 (with a preview on TV at 8.15pm). They lead for Italy by Gabriele Corsi and Elettra Lamborghini. The presenters in Vienna are Victoria Swarovski (yes, she is part of that family) and Michael Ostrowski.
Of the 17 artists who will perform, 15 will compete for entry to the final on Saturday evening. They are in the order of release: Moldova, Sweden, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Georgia, Finland, Montenegro, Estonia, Israel, Belgium, Lithuania, San Marino, Poland and Serbia. 10 will pass.
We will also hear from Sal Da Vinci for Italy (after Georgia and before Finland) and Sarah Engels for Germany, who, being part of the so-called Big 4 (there were five, they became four after Spain's defection), will perform out of competition and will automatically access Saturday's final. Forever yes it will be accompanied by an arch-Italian performance with the dancers Francesca Tocca and Marcello Sacchetta which replicates the wedding in the video clip.
The results are determined by the combination of televoting (which accounts for 50.7%) and national juries (which accounts for 49.3%). Voting from Italy will be active, although obviously you will not be able to vote Forever yes.
The second semi-final will not be held tomorrow, but on Thursday evening. 10 singers will advance to the final among the representatives of (in order of exit): Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Romania, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Armenia, Switzerland, Cyprus, Latvia, Denmark, Australia, Ukraine, Albania, Malta, Norway. France and the United Kingdom (members of the Big 4) and Austria (the country hosting the event) will perform and automatically advance to the final. Italy will not vote.
Exit order matters. Those placed last in the lineup have qualified in 86.67% of cases over the last 15 years. Countries in the second half of the ladder qualified more frequently than those in the first half (52.67% versus 47.33%).
The final will be held on Saturday. The running order sit will be announced on the night between Thursday 14th and Friday 15th May. Austria will perform last, 25th. Unlike the two semi-finals which will be broadcast on Rai 2, Saturday's final will be broadcast in prime time on Rai 1, as well as on RaiPlay and Rai Radio 2.
Who will win? The bookmakers give Finland the favorite (Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen, Liekinheitin) followed by Greece (Akylas, Ferto) and from Denmark (Søren Torpegaard Lund, Før Vi Går Hjem). Sal Da Vinci is given in the top 10.
