Israel's Eurovision Entry Warned Over Voting Campaign Violations

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has issued a formal warning to Israel's public broadcaster, Kan, concerning a promotional campaign by Israel's Eurovision 2026 representative, Noam Petan. Petan reportedly distributed advertisements in 13 languages urging viewers across Europe to use all ten of their allotted votes for his song, "Michel." Eurovision competition manager Martin Green confirmed the incident, stating that upon learning of the campaign, the EBU demanded the immediate removal of the videos from all platforms, a demand that was promptly met.

Green clarified that directly soliciting the maximum number of votes for a single artist contravenes the spirit and rules of the competition. This marks the first enforcement action since new voting regulations were implemented for Eurovision 2026. These rules, announced in November 2025, aim to prevent disproportionate campaigns supported by external or governmental entities and reduced the maximum votes per viewer from 20 to 10.

The changes followed an extensive campaign supporting Yuval Raphael's participation in Eurovision 2025 in Basel, where she secured second place and the highest number of audience votes. Kan responded to Norwegian outlet TV2, attributing the incident to the artist's personal initiative without illegal funding and confirming the videos' removal as requested by the EBU.

Following this event, the EBU also sent a reminder letter to the heads of the other 34 delegations, clarifying that while vote requests are common practice, explicit calls for multiple votes are unacceptable, according to Swedish journalist Tobbe Ek of Aftonbladet.