Eurovision Defends Voting System After Complaints over Israel’s 2nd Place Finish - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
- Israeli entrant Yuval Raphael finished second in the Eurovision Song Contest grand final held in Basel, Switzerland, in May 2025 after winning the public vote but receiving zero jury points.
- The event followed a campaign including Israeli government-funded videos urging viewers in multiple countries to vote up to 20 times for Israel amid ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict tensions.
- Several European broadcasters, including Spain’s RTVE and Belgium’s VRT, raised concerns about the televote integrity and requested an audit of Eurovision’s voting system citing irregularities.
- Eurovision director Martin Green defended the voting process as “the most advanced in the world” and affirmed results undergo extensive verification to exclude irregular voting patterns.
- The controversy highlights tensions over Eurovision’s impartiality, with some calling for Israel’s exclusion and others demanding greater voting transparency, raising questions about the contest’s political neutrality.
19 Articles
19 Articles
Eurovision bosses hit back at 'rigged' voting row after Israel result: 'Most advanced in the world!'
Eurovision's voting system has come under intense scrutiny after Israel's second-place finish in this year's contest, with multiple broadcasters demanding an investigation into potential manipulation
Eurovision defends voting system after complaints over Israel’s 2nd place finish - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Organizers of Eurovision are defending its voting system after several countries’ broadcasters raised questions about Israel’s victory in the international song contest’s audience poll. Israel’s Yuval Raphael took second place in the widely-watched contest last weekend, buoyed by a runaway first-place finish in the audience vote, in which viewers in the competing countries can cast ballots up to 20 times for their favorite songs, at the cost of …
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