On 15 December 2025, the EBU announced that broadcasters from 35 countries would participate in the 2026 contest. Bulgaria returned after a three-year absence, Romania returned after a two-year absence, and Moldova returned after a one-year absence. Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain, all of which participated in 2025, opted not to take part in protest at the inclusion of Israel 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 1970.

The contest featured two returning artists: Estonia’s Vanilla Ninja had previously represented Switzerland in 2005, and San Marino’s Senhit had previously represented the country in 2011 and 2021 (and was set to do so in 2020 before that year’s event was cancelled). In addition, Poland’s Alicja was also set to represent the country in 2020; Aliona Moon, who provided backing vocals for Moldova’s Satoshi, had previously represented Moldova in 2013and provided backing vocals for Pasha Parfeni in 2012; Georgia’s Bzikebi had previously won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 for the country; 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)
🇦🇱 Albania	RTSH	Alis (Alis Kallaçi)	“Nân” (Mother)	Albanian	Alis Kallaçi, Desara Gjini
🇦🇲 Armenia	AMPTV	SIMÓN (Սիմոն, Simon Hovhannisyan, Սիմոն Հովհաննիսյան) (With Anka Davtyan, Arsen Oricci, John – Jon Suqiasian, Elvira Girfanova, Ashot Nrkrarants)	“Paloma Rumba” (Պալոմա Ռումբա)	English	Lilit Navasardyan (LI’LITH) – David Tserunyan, Eva Voskanyan, Rosa Linn (Roza Kostandyan)
🇦🇺 Australia	SBS	Delta Goodrem (Delta Lea Goodrem)	“Eclipse”	English	Delta Goodrem, Ferras AlQaisi, Jonas Myrin, Michael Fatkin – Delta Goodrem, Ferras AlQaisi, Jonas Myrin, Michael Fatkin
🇦🇹 Austria	ORF	COSMÓ (Benjamin Gedeon)	“Tanzschein” (Dance Permit / Dance(-ing) Licence)	German	Benjamin Gedeon, Elias Stejskal, Ella Stern
🇦🇿 Azerbaijan	İTV	JIVA (Jamila Hashimova, Cəmilə Həşimova) (with Emus Nero, )	“Just Go” (Sadəcə çıx)	English, Azerbaijani	Fuad Javadov
🇧🇪 Belgium	RTBF	ESSYLA (Alice Van Eesbeeck) (With Max Lukaina, Axel Remezo, Julien Maniquet, Tom Van de Weghe)	“Dancing on the Ice” (Dansen op het IJs, Dansen op ‘t IJs, Danser Sur La Glace)	English	Alice Van Eesbeeck, Barbara Petitjean, Emil Stengele, Nicolas d’Avell
Bulgaria	BNT	DARA (Дара, Darina Nikolaeva Yotova,Дарина Николаева Йотова)	“Bangaranga” (Бангаранга)	English	Anne Judith Stokke Wik, Darina Yotova, Dimitris Kontopoulos, Monoir (Cristian Tarcea) – Anne Judith Stokke Wik, Darina Yotova, Dimitris Kontopoulos, Monoir (Cristian Tarcea)
🇭🇷 Croatia	HRT	LELEK (Inka Večerina Perušić, Judita Štorga, Korina Olivia Rogić, Lara Brtan, Marina Ramljak)	“Andromeda“	Croatian	Filip Lacković, Lazar Pajić, Zorja (Zorica Pajić) – Tomislav Roso
🇨🇾 Cyprus	CyBC	Antigoni (Αντιγόνη; Αντιγόνη Μπάξτον, Antigoni Buxton) (with Anna Chatzikyriakou, Nina Spyrou (Konstantina Spyrou), Natalia Michael, Sophia Papakonstantinou)	“JALLA” (Κι Άλλα, Τζ’ Άλλα, More)	English, Greek	Antigoni Buxton, Claydee Lupa (Klejdi Lupa), Connor Mullally-Knight, Paris Kalpos, Trey Qua – Antigoni Buxton, Charalambous Kallona, Claydee Lupa (Klejdi Lupa), Connor Mullally-Knight, Demetris Nikolaou, Paris Kalpos, Trey Qua
🇨🇿 Czechia	ČT	Daniel Žižka	“CROSSROADS” (Křižovatky)	English	Daniel Žižka, Viliam Béreš – Daniel Žižka
🇩🇰 Denmark	DR	Søren Torpegaard Lund	“Før vi går hjem” (Before We Go Home)	Danish	Clara Sofie Fabricius, Søren Torpegaard Lund, Thomas Meilstrup, Valdemar Littauer Bendixen
🇪🇪 Estonia	ERR	Vanilla Ninja (Kerli Kivilaan, Lenna Kuurma, Piret Järvis-Milder)	“Too Epic to Be True” (Liiga eepiline et olla tõsi)	English	Sven Lõhmus
🇫🇮 Finland	Yle	Linda Lampenius x Pete Parkkonen (Linda Magdalena Cullberg Lampenius, Linda Brava x Pete Eemeli Parkkonen)	“Liekinheitin” (Flamethrower)	Finnish	Antti Riihimäki, Lauri Halavaara, Pete Parkkonen, Vilma Alina – Pete Parkkonen, Vilma Alina Lähteenmäki
🇫🇷 France	France Télévisions	Monroe (Monroe Vata Rigby)	“Regarde !” (Look !)	French	Christopher Cohen, Fred Savio, Fredie Marche, Maxime Morise – Fredie Marche
🇬🇪 Georgia	GPB	Bzikebi (ბზიკები: Giorgi Shiolashvili (გიორგი შიოლაშვილი, George Shiolashvili), Mariam Kikuashvili (მარიამ კიკუაშვილი), Mariam Tatulashvili (მარიამ თათულაშვილი))	“On Replay”	English	Giga Kukhianidze – Liza Japaridze
🇩🇪 Germany	SWR[a]	Sarah Engels (Sarah Lombardi)	“Fire” (Feuer)	English	Dario Schürmann, Luisa Heinemann, Raphael Lott, Sarah Engels, Valentin Boes – Dario Schürmann, Luisa Heinemann, Raphael Lott, Sarah Engels, Valentin Boes
🇬🇷 Greece	ERT	Akylas (Ακύλας; Akylas Mytilinaios, Ακύλας Μυτιληναίος) (With Parthena Chorozidou, Michalis Michailidis, Christos Nikolaou, Konstantinos Karypidis / Παρθένα Χοροζίδου, Μιχάλης Μιχαηλίδης, Χρήστος Νικολάου, Κωνσταντίνος Μακρυπίδη)	“Ferto” (Φέρτο, Φέρ’ το, Bring it)	Greek, Spanish, French, English	Akylas Mytilinaios, Orfeas Nonis, Theofilos Pouzbouris, Thomas Papathanasis
🇮🇱 Israel	IPBC	Noam Bettan (נועם בתן)	“Michelle” (מישל)	Hebrew, French, English	Nadav Aharoni, Tslil Klifi – Nadav Aharoni, Noam Bettan, Tzlil Klifi, Yuval Raphael
🇮🇹 Italy	RAI	Sal Da Vinci (Salvatore Michael Sorrentino)	“Per sempre sì” (Forever yes, Pe sempe sì)	Italian	Alessandro La Cava, Eugenio Maimone, Francesco Sorrentino, Federica Abbate, Federico Mercuri, Giordano Cremona, Salvatore Michael Sorrentino
🇱🇻 Latvia	LSM	Atvara (Liene Stūrmane)	“Ēnā” (In the shadow / In the shade)	Latvian	Jānis Jačmenkins, Liene Stūrmane – Jānis Jačmenkins, Liene Atvara
🇱🇹 Lithuania	LRT	Lion Ceccah (Tomas Alenčikas,  Alen Chicco) (With Justinas Stanevičius, Justa Rubežiūtė, Greta Paukštė and Diana Anisko)	“Sólo quiero más” (I just want more, Aš tiesiog noriu daugiau)	Lithuanian, Spanish, English	Aurimas Galvelis, Tomas Alenčikas – Tomas Alenčikas
🇱🇺 Luxembourg	RTL	Eva Marija (Eva Marija Kavaš Puc)	“Mother Nature”	English	Eva Marija Kavaš Puc, Julie Aagaard , Maria Broberg, Thomas Stengaard
🇲🇹 Malta	PBS	AIDAN (Aidan Cassar)	“Bella” (Beautiful, Sabiħa)	English, Maltese, Italian	Aidan Cassar, Joep van den Boom, Sarah Bonnici – Aidan Cassar
Moldova	TRM	Satoshi (Vlad Sabajuc) (With Aliona Moon (Aliona Munteanu), )	“Viva, Moldova!” (Long live Moldova!, Trăiască Moldova!)	Romanian, Italian, Latin, English, Spanish, French	Andrei Vulpe, Cătălin Temciuc, Vasile Advahov, Vlad Sabajuc – Vlad Sabajuc
🇲🇪 Montenegro	RTCG	Tamara Živković (Тамара Живковић) (With Boris Subotić, Tamara Živković, Jovana Živković, Ivana Štrbac, Vesna Aćimović)	“Nova zora” (Нова зора, New dawn)	Montenegrin	Boris Subotić
🇳🇴 Norway	NRK	JONAS LOVV (Jonas Lovv Hellesøy)	“YA YA YA”	English	Jonas Lovv Hellesøy, Sondre Skaftun – Jonas Lovv Hellesøy, Sondre Skaftun
🇵🇱 Poland	TVP	ALICJA (Alicja Maria Szemplińska)  (With Włodek Kołoby, Oskar Borkowski, Krystian Rzymkiewicz, Stefano Silvino)	“Pray” (Módl się)	English	Alicja Szemplińska, Sinclair Alan Malcolm, Weronika Gabryelczyk
🇵🇹  Portugal	RTP	Bandidos do Cante (Duarte Farias, Francisco Pestana, Francisco Raposo, Luís Aleixo, Miguel Costa)	“Rosa” (Rose)	Portuguese	Duarte Farias, Francisco Pereira, Francisco Pestana, Francisco Raposo, Gonçalo Narciso, Gui Alface, José Carlos Coelho Almeida Tavares, Luis Aleixo, Miguel Costa
Romania	TVR	Alexandra Căpitănescu (Alexandra Căpitănescu, Bogdan Stoican, Luca Șofron, Matei Cohal, Thomas Cîrcotă)	“Choke Me” (Sufocă-mă)	English	Alexandra Căpitănescu, Călin-Alexandru Grăjdan, Majiii (Elvis Silitră), Ștefan Condrea – Alexandra Căpitănescu, Majii (Elvis Silitră)
🇸🇲 San Marino	SMRTV	SENHIT [b: Features uncredited vocals by Boy George] (Senhit Zadik Zadik, Senit) (With Anders Nielsen,James Mulford, Kate Ivory Jordan  e Marion Fagbemi)	“Superstar”	English	Anderz Wrethov, George Alan O’Dowd, Julie Aagaard, John-Emil Johansson, Thomas Stengaard, Senhit Zadik Zadik
🇷🇸 Serbia	RTS	LAVINA (Лавина: Luka Aranđelović, Andrija Cvetanović, Pavle Samardžić, Bojan Ilić, Nikola Petrović, Pavle Aranđelović / Андрија Цветановић, Бојан Илић, Лука Аранђеловић, Никола Петровић, Павле Аранђеловић, Павле Самарџић)	“Kraj mene” (Крај мене, Next to me / By my side)	Serbian	Andrija Cvetanović, Bojan Ilić, Ivan Jegdić, Luka Aranđelović, Nikola Petrović, Pavle Aranđelović, Pavle Samardžić
🇸🇪 Sweden	SVT	FELICIA (Felicia Agneta Eriksson,  Fröken Snusk)  (With Daniel Gürow, Daniel Koivunen, Lamin Holmén (Lamin Camara Holmén), Niklas Arleryd (Nik Alexander))	“My System” (Mitt System)	English	Audun Agnar Guldbrandsen, Emily Harbakk, Felicia Eriksson, Julie Bergan, Theresa Rex
🇨🇭 Switzerland	SRG SSR	Veronica Fusaro	“Alice”	English	Charlie McClean, Veronica Fusaro
🇺🇦 Ukraine	Suspilne	LELÉKA (Viktoria Leléka (Вікторія Лелека), Viktoria Kornikova, Donbasgrl) (with Yaroslav Dzhus)	“Ridnym” (Рідним, To loved ones)	English, Ukrainian	Adama Cefalu, Jakob Hegner, Viktoriia Leleka – Adama Cefalu, Viktoriia Leleka
🇬🇧 United Kindom	BBC	LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER	“Eins, zwei, drei” (One, two, three)	English	Julie Aagaard, LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER (Sam Battle), Lasse Nymann, Thomas Stengaard – Julie Aagaard, LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER (Sam Battle), Lasse Midtsian Nymann, Thomas Stengaard

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 2024 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 Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain 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 Iceland 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 Italy in 2011. The boycott was described by several media outlets as “the biggest crisis in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest”.[d] Protesting the decision to permit Israel, Nemo, who won for Switzerland in 2024, returned their trophy to the EBU. Charlie McGettigan, who won for Ireland in 1994 alongside Paul Harrington, later stated that he would return his trophy as well.

The following countries’ broadcasters confirmed they would boycott in 2026:

• 🇮🇸 Iceland – Although RÚV planned to select its entry for 2026 through its traditional national final Söngvakeppnin, 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.
• 🇮🇪 Ireland – On 11 September 2025, RTÉ stated “if the participation of Israel goes ahead” it would not compete, citing the “huge loss of life” as well as targeting of journalists in the Gaza war, and that the broadcaster is waiting until the EBU general assembly in December to make a decision. On 4 December, following the assembly vote, RTÉ decided to neither compete in nor broadcast the contest. Eurovision-related programmes still aired during Eurovision week, but regularly scheduled programming continued to be broadcast as normal on RTÉ One and RTÉ2 on the nights of all three shows.
• 🇳🇱 The Netherlands – Despite initially announcing it would internally select an entry for 2026, on 12 September 2025, AVROTROS stated: “We can no longer justify Israel’s participation with the continued and serious human suffering in Gaza”, and cited the Israeli government campaign as interference in the previous edition’s outcome. The broadcaster later stated that it would not change its position for the contest in 2026 even if a ceasefire is reached or the broader Israeli–Palestinian conflict develops otherwise, and would reassess its participation “in subsequent years” dependent on the circumstances at that moment. On 4 December, following the assembly vote, AVROTROS confirmed its boycott of the event. Sister broadcasters NOS and NTR were instead tasked by the overarching body NPO to air the contest through NPO 1 and NPO Radio 2, as those broadcasters are required by Dutch law to broadcast and report on “major national and international (cultural) events”.
• 🇸🇮 Slovenia – On 4 September 2025, RTVSLO stated that it would decide whether to participate in 2026 after the EBU makes a decision on Israel’s future participation and address concerns surrounding the “transparency of the vote” in December. The broadcaster later stated its “clear position”, on 12 September and again on 27 November, that it would not participate if Israel is allowed to compete. On 4 December, following the assembly vote, RTVSLO decided to neither compete in nor broadcasting the contest. In April 2026, RTVSLO decided to air a slate of programmes named Voices of Palestine from 10 to 20 May, with some of those airing on the nights of the three shows.
• 🇪🇸 Spain – In May 2025, José Pablo López, chairman of RTVE, initially scheduled the selection of the Spanish entry through Benidorm Fest, the national final format in use since 2022. On 9 September, it was reported that a decision on participation would be made in December, following the EBU general assembly, and that Benidorm Fest would be organised regardless of the decision taken. On 16 September, RTVE’s board of directors passed a proposal for the broadcaster not to participate in nor air the contest if Israel participates. On 9 October, RTVE’s head of communications María Eizaguirre stated that the broadcaster’s position remained unchanged in light of the recently proposed peace plan; López reaffirmed this in front of the Joint Parliamentary Control Committee of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate on 27 November. On 4 December, following the assembly vote, RTVE decided to neither compete in nor broadcast the contest. Regularly scheduled programming continued on La 1 and La 2 the nights of all three shows. At the start time of the final, RTVE aired a message on La 1 in Spanish and English which read, “The Eurovision Song Contest is a competition, but human rights are not. There is no room for indifference. Peace and justice for Palestine”.

Other countries. The EBU member broadcasters in Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Slovakia confirmed non-participation prior to the announcement of the participants list by the EBU. Associate member broadcasters in Canada and Kazakhstan expressed interest in debuting in the contest, however, the EBU confirmed that the two would not do so in 2026.