Eurovision Removes Audience Member For Protesting During Israel's Performance

Eurovision bosses have confirmed that audience members were removed from the competition’s first live semi-final after political chants were heard during the broadcast of the Israeli act’s performance.

On Tuesday night, singer Noam Bettan represented Israel at the semi-final with his song Michelle, where he was chosen to go through to the next stage of the song contest at the weekend.

During the opening moments of the performance, chants of “stop the genocide” could be heard coming from the audience, particularly towards the beginning of the song.

BBC journalist Callum Rowe later shared a joint statement from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Austria’s national broadcaster ORF about the incident.

“As previously announced, ORF is broadcasting a clean audio feed live from audience microphones before and during every performer’s song,” they said.

“One audience member, close to a microphone, loudly expressed their views as the Israeli artist began his performance, and during the song, which was heard on the live broadcast. 

“They were later removed by security for continuing to disturb the audience.”

It was also confirmed that three more audience members “were also removed from the arena by security” for what the EBU and ORF described as “disruptive behaviour”.

Notably, Eurovision’s YouTube upload of Israel’s semi-final performance does not include the “stop the genocide” chant.

Controversy over Israel’s presence at Eurovision is nothing new, but the competition has faced even more scrutiny in the last few years due to the country’s continued participation.

At the end of last year, discussions took place among EBU members about whether Israel should be invited back to Eurovision in 2026, with five nations withdrawing from the contest following the news that Israel would remain part of it.

In the lead-up to this year’s competition, many critics – including several prolific musicians – backed calls for a boycott of Eurovision in solidarity with Palestine, while reigning winner JJ and his predecessor Nemo have both expressed their feelings that Israel should be excluded from taking part in the contest.