Eurovision song competition starts with the first semifinal after boycott over Israel

Competition starts Tuesday at the Eurovision Song Contest, with divisions over Israel’s participation hanging over the 70th birthday of the over-the-top pop music extravaganza.

Host city Vienna has been bedecked in hearts and the contest’s “United by Music” motto for a week in which singers and bands from 35 countries will compete onstage for the continent’s musical crown. But five countries — Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland — are boycotting to protest Israel’s inclusion.

Several pro-Palestinian demonstrations are planned in Vienna during Eurovision week, and security is tight, with police officers from across Austria deployed in the capital, and support from forces in neighboring Germany.

Last month a 21-year-old Austrian man accused of pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group pleaded guilty to plotting to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna in 2024, and the head of Austria’s DSN intelligence service, Sylvia Mayer, said “the terror threat posed by Islamist terror groups, as well as Iran-affiliated groups, is still at a high level.”

Israeli singer Noam Bettan is among 15 acts competing for votes from viewers and national juries in Tuesday’s semifinal at the Wiener Stadthalle arena. The top 10 will go through to Saturday’s grand final, along with 10 from Thursday’s second semifinal. The U.K., France, Germany and Italy automatically qualify because they are among the contest’s biggest funders. Austria, last year’s winner, goes through to the final as host country.

Bettan is seeking to get Israel, which came second in 2025, into Saturday’s final with the ballad “Michelle.” Like last year’s Israeli competitor, Yuval Raphael, he has practiced singing while being booed.

Hoping to cement its status as bookmakers’ favorite is Finland, with the intense “Liekinheitin” (“Flamethrower”) by violinist Linda Lampenius and pop singer Pete Parkkonen.