Eurovision responds to accusations it encourages voting ‘manipulation' after Israel performance
Eurovision director Martin Green has shared a statement with fans and participating countries of the competition following calls for an audit into its voting system, in response to Israel's near-win this year.
Controversy over the country's participation has been rife for the past two years amid its war on Gaza, while its contestants have been the subject of widespread protests.
Israel's 2025 delegate Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the 7 October attacks by Hamas, came in second place in the grand final last week, while the competition was won by Austra's singer JJ. Raphael scored a total of 357 points from combined votes of the professional jury and the public.
In the wake of the competition, several public broadcasters for countries including Belgium, Spain and Ireland have requested a breakdown of the voting system from Eurovision organisers the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and its voting partner Once.
In a statement shared to its website on Friday (23 May), the EBU said it had been listening and engaging 'closely' with the conversations among member countries, fans and the media following the 2025 contest.
'I want to again congratulate the winner JJ and the team from ORF,' Green said. 'His performance and song rightly, clearly and validly won the Contest and we want to make sure any ancillary conversations do not overshadow this epic achievement.'
Addressing questions surrounding the Eurovision voting system, Green said that several 'specially designed' systems were in place to monitor and prevent fraud, while more than 60 individuals stationed in Cologne, Vienna and Amsterdam were employed to monitor the voting process in each country.
'All results are verified through an eight-eye principle by the CEO and senior employees of Once, who collectively have over 40 years of voting experience,' he said.
He continued to break down the measures that the EBU and Once go to in order to ensure that 'our rules and systems remain fail safe', while acknowledging that audience voting often showed evidence of being influenced by current affairs, geographic affiliations or the back stories of certain contestants.
'Historically the ESC has been as open to this as other singing and music competitions and reality television,' Green said.
He added that there was 'no current evidence' to suggest that allowing 20 votes per person – 'designed to ensure that audiences of all ages can vote for more than one of their favourite songs' – disproportionately affected the final result.
However, 'the question has been asked and so we will look into it', he said.
Katia Segers, a Flemish MP, argued in a statement this week that 'a system in which everyone can cast up to 20 votes is a system that encourages manipulation'.
'Whether this manipulation occurred in our country and all other participating and non-participating countries must be investigated,' she said.
Green concluded his statement by once again congratulating JJ and Austrian broadcaster ORF for winning the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest.
Next year's competition will take place in the winning country, Austria.
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