Following the General Assembly held in Geneva, the EBU members were asked to vote (secretly) on whether they supported the proposed changes to the Eurovision Contest rules.
With broad agreement that a further vote wasn’t needed, the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 is confirmed to go ahead, including the new safeguards. Following this, no separate vote on participating countries was needed.
Following the general assembly’s results, Israel’s participation was officially confirmed.
4 countries have informed of their withdrawal from the contest: The Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia.
And now, another national broadcaster follows in their steps: Icelandic broadcaster RÚV has decided the country won’t take part in Eurovision 2026.
 Stefán EirÃkisson, RÚV‘s Director General stated:
It is clear from the public debate in this country and the reaction to the EBU’s decision made last week that there will be neither joy nor peace regarding RÚV’s participation in Eurovision. It is therefore RÚV’s decision to inform the EBU today that RÚV will not participate in Eurovision next year,
You can read the full statement here:
The Icelandic National Broadcasting Corporation has decided not to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria, next year.
The participation of the Israeli national broadcaster, KAN, in the contest has recently caused discord, both among the member stations of the European Broadcasting Union, EBU, and among the public. KAN’s participation was discussed in detail at EBU meetings earlier this year, first in London this summer and in Geneva last week. At the meeting in Geneva, a large majority of EBU member stations agreed that various changes that have been made to the rules and the implementation of the contest were satisfactory, and therefore there was no vote on KAN’s participation in the contest.
The director-general of the broadcaster explained at the meeting in Geneva that although the changes met many of the comments that RÚV representatives had made at various stages of the EBU cooperation in recent years, RÚV still had doubts about their usefulness. It had been repeatedly stated that stakeholders in Iceland, for example artists’ associations, and the Icelandic public were opposed to participation in the competition. The board of RÚV had then requested that the EBU remove KAN from the competition, taking into account precedents. The issue was complex to resolve and had already damaged the reputation of the competition and the EBU. It was important to find a solution for all parties involved.
It is clear from the public debate in this country and the reaction to the EBU’s decision made last week that there will be neither joy nor peace regarding RÚV’s participation in Eurovision. It is therefore RÚV’s decision to inform the EBU today that RÚV will not participate in Eurovision next year.
The Song Contest and Eurovision have always had the goal of uniting the Icelandic people, but it is now clear that that goal will not be achieved and this decision is made on those programmatic grounds.
There has been no decision yet on whether a singing competition will be held by RÚV next year. The available options are being evaluated and a decision will be announced when it is available.
3 weeks ago, the national broadcaster closed the submission window for “Söngvakeppninn 2026” (The national selection for Eurovision 2026). The submission window has been available for a long time, and as a result, RÚV received a large number of submissions.
However, it is still unknown whether “Söngvakeppninn 2026” will take place independently.
Iceland has participated in Eurovision 37 times, with 28 grand final appearances.
The first participation was in 1986.
Over the years, the country’s best results were 2nd place in 1999 and 2009.
We hope to see Iceland competing in Eurovision in the future
Eurovision 2026 will be held in Vienna, Austria, on May 12th, 14th, and 16th, 2026.
As the saying goes:
Next Year in Jerusalem….