TABLET MAG
The Crowd Knew Better
Itxu Díaz
May 27, 2025

The Eurovision Song Contest just wrapped up one of its most controversial editions, which revealed a stark disconnect between European audiences and their governments. For the third year in a row, Israel received more popular votes than those awarded by the national juries. While viewers this year voted overwhelmingly for Israeli singer Yuval Raphael, European bureaucrats went to comical lengths to exclude and efface the Israeli contestant, resulting in her second-place finish. The now-familiar Eurovision vitriol toward Israel began even before the contest, when public broadcasters from six participating countries pushed to exclude Israel from the event, comparing it to Russia as an aggressor state. Then, after Raphael’s song, “New Day Will Rise,” received the most votes from audiences, the Spanish Broadcasting Authority (RTVE) demanded a reassessment of the voting system. READ MORE