ESC Ben

If these are the rule changes designed to placate the boycotting countries - and said countries are placated - then shame on them.

It would be clear to me then that they don’t understand the core issues of the contest and their boycott threats were somewhat of a ‘popular’ publicity stunt.

Any excitement I had for Eurovision 2026 has completely vaporised this morning. Those ‘changes’ - if you can even call them that - are an absolute disgrace. A total waste of time.

As much I wanted juries back in the SFs, that was way down the list of the problems that needed solving. #Eurovision

Unacceptable. Absolutely no one should be celebrating this. This doesn’t even remotely touch the surface of the problems. Reducing to five votes wouldn’t have made any difference, let alone TEN.

We’ll just be having the same conversation about the televote this time next year. #Eurovision

I was just about to post the same thing lol - I can’t find a source of it either and, yeah, would be noticeably earlier than usual if true.

Very inconsiderate scheduling of national finals by broadcasters this year 😂

That’s three now on 28 February (excluding small matter of Melfest Heat 5) to add to the FIVE on 14 February, with nothing (so far) on the Saturdays immediately before those two dates.

Space them out more! #Eurovision

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 As an Arsenal fan, I’m so glad it was Kieran Tierney!

Fantastic! #SCODEN

Oh Scotland… #SCODEN

SCOTLAND! 👀 #SCODEN

😂💀

Think he’s getting carried away with everything tbh. To get to a record number, you need another FOUR on top of what we’ve got already… and then no boycott.

I reckon Canada would do 2026. I suspect the talks have been going on much longer than we think. May have already said yes privately.

Song-Contest-Rekordshow angekündigt Die Entscheidung über eine Teilnahme Israels steht noch aus. Aber die Vorbereitungen auf den Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Wien laufen bereits auf Hochtouren, die Suche nach Freiwilligen beginnt. De...

🇦🇹 ORF Director General Roland Weissmann is “optimistic” that we will have a “RECORD number of participating countries” at Eurovision 2026.

#Eurovision

wien.orf.at/stories/3330...

🇪🇸 More Spanish heartbreak in Turin… #Eurovision #ATPFinals

🌓 Happy Eurovision Equinox Day! 🌓

Today marks the exact halfway point between the Eurovision 2025 and 2026 Grand Finals!

🇨🇭 Eurovision 2025 - 182 days ago
🇦🇹 Eurovision 2026 - 182 days from now

#Eurovision

The only way to combat that is to change the voting system which will also tackle the diaspora voting to some extent as well. The 20 votes system practically encourages it. No disrespect to Poland and Lithuania, for example, but it’s barking mad the UK almost always gives them big televote points.

I think the ad campaigns are an easy thing to blame but it doesn’t deal with the crux of the issue that, plainly and simply, there is a certain percentage of people who will vote for Israel and to a lesser extent, yes, Ukraine 20 times purely to make a political point or out of sympathy.

Depends how you define ‘foul play,’ I guess. If you mean the Ukrainian state isn’t involved with ad campaigns like Israel, then sure, I agree, but I really think the efficacy of 🇮🇱 ad campaigns is blown well out of proportion by Eurofans to be honest. I don’t think they make much, if any, difference.

I’m really no fan of Israel, but there is no evidence at all to say they have fraudulently earned their televote success. It doesn’t take many people to vote 20 times for one country in order to secure a country’s televote 12 points.

There are plenty of 🇮🇱🇺🇦 supporters who do that. It’s not right.

You can send quality entries and your score still be inflated. Both can be true.

We need a voting system that is as fair as possible for ALL countries, not one that effectively gives two countries a head start.

I fail to see what is so controversial about this. Ukraine’s and Israel’s inflated TV scores have a fundamental impact on the competition. It is not acceptable.

I see one of my IG posts seems to have ‘upset’ some people today.

I stand by it. I’m not suggesting 🇮🇱 & 🇺🇦 are ‘the same’ but the way they both benefit at ESC because of political/pity voting is the same. That’s just a fact and it’s unfair on the 35+ other artists who take part. #Eurovision

No one needs to vote for their favourite five times. It is effectively the Eurovision equivalent of vote stuffing.

One vote per country tackles the obvious and disgraceful political/pity voting as well as some of the diaspora voting too. It kills multiple birds with one stone.

📞 Changing it to five votes per country wouldn’t make the slightest bit of difference. It should be ONE vote per country.

That way, to receive a country’s 12 pts from the televote, you would require the most *people* to vote for you and not just the most votes. #Eurovision

🗳️ After *much* deliberation, I have settled on this 👇

#Eurovision #ESC250

Looking forward to seeing the black or white smoke during the Conclave to elect the next one.

Was getting worried for a minute it wasn’t going to appear in the Top 100! 😅

Infinitely better than the utter garbage they actually sent. #Eurovision #NFC100

🇲🇽 I’ve been to Cancun. I… wouldn’t go back. #RaceAcrossTheWorld #RATW

🇨🇦 Cynical me again, but the fact that the EBU have already gone public with this suggests the talks are considerably more advanced than “very early stages…” - as they would have to be at this stage (‘only’ four months left to pick an artist/song for 2026) #Eurovision

🇨🇦 Need this to happen to test my theory that a Canadian national final, despite the time difference, would still start and finish before Sanremo finishes. #Eurovision

TRM didn’t have the money to buy a Happy Meal just a short while ago and now they’re holding a national final in the country’s brand spanking new arena.

Hmm. #Eurovision