Ireland says it will again boycott Eurovision in 2027 over Israel’s participation

Ireland’s public broadcaster confirmed Thursday that the country would again boycott the Eurovision Song Contest in Bulgaria in May over Israel’s participation.

“RTÉ is today confirming that its position regarding participation in the Eurovision Song Contest remains unchanged. RTÉ will not participate in the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest, nor will RTÉ broadcast the competition,” the public broadcaster said in a statement.

“RTÉ feels that Ireland’s participation cannot be justified given the appalling and ongoing loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there, which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk. RTÉ also remains deeply concerned by the continued denial of independent access to international journalists to the territory,” the statement continued.

In his own statement, Eurovision director Martin Green said that “we regret that RTÉ will not be participating in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2027, but we fully respect their decision.”

Green added that the European Broadcasting Union, which organizes Eurovision, “will remain in dialogue with RTÉ and hope to welcome them back to the Contest in the future.”

Ireland, together with the Netherlands, Spain, Iceland and Slovenia, boycotted Eurovision’s 2026 edition, after a vote by an overwhelming majority of EBU members cleared the way for Israel’s participation.

The vote sidestepped a referendum on Israel’s participation and introduced changes to the contest’s voting system, seemingly to assuage critics who accused Israel of unfairly influencing the vote.

Last month, the Netherlands’ AVROTROS broadcaster said it would again sit out the 2027 contest, but Dutch umbrella broadcaster NPO said it was weighing whether another TV station could take over the nation’s participation.

Iceland, Spain and Slovenia have not yet announced a decision, nor has Belgium — whose French-language RTBF took part this year but whose Dutch-language VRT has said it will rethink its participation. Spain and Belgium this week reportedly requested more time from the EBU to make a decision on the matter.

The 2027 Eurovision is slated for May 11-15 in Burgas, Bulgaria, after Bulgarian singer Dara won this year’s contest, in Vienna, with the dance hit “Bangaranga.”

Israel’s Noam Bettan finished in second place, alarming many viewers and analysts who believed an Israeli win would lead to a larger boycott and further threaten the competition’s future.

Israel’s delegations to the three Eurovision contests since the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza have faced large-scale protests and required beefed-up security.