Bulgaria wins Eurovision in Vienna amid boycott over Israel participation

Bulgaria won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time on Saturday in Vienna, taking the 70th edition of the contest under the shadow of a boycott over Israel’s participation. DARA, the stage name of Darina Nikolaeva Yotova, won with “Bangaranga” at the Wiener Stadthalle, finishing with 516 points ahead of Israel’s Noam Bettan, whose song “Michelle” scored 343.

The result gave Bulgaria its first Eurovision title and secured the right to host the 2027 contest. It also capped a final in which the music competition’s usual message of light entertainment was repeatedly tested by a deeper political fight over whether Eurovision could still present itself as separate from the war in Gaza.

Five countries pulled out of this year’s contest: Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Iceland. The withdrawal was led by their public broadcasters, with Spain’s RTVE becoming the first broadcaster from Eurovision’s “Big Five” to boycott the event. That made the protest the largest coordinated Eurovision withdrawal in more than five decades and underscored how far the dispute over Israel’s involvement had spread through the contest’s broadcasting network.

The European Broadcasting Union confirmed Israel’s participation in December 2025, setting off the boycott wave that followed. By the time the final began in Vienna, the contest was taking place amid heightened security, protests outside the venue and intense scrutiny over whether organizers could keep the show insulated from the conflict.

Even so, the competition went ahead as planned, with organizers pushing to preserve Eurovision’s annual mix of pop spectacle and national rivalry. Israel’s second-place finish also showed the continued weight of the public vote, even as the final was overshadowed by the political backlash surrounding its entry.

For Bulgaria, the win was both a breakthrough and a reminder of Eurovision’s expanding political burden. The country’s first title will send the contest to Bulgarian soil in 2027, but Vienna’s final showed that in the current climate, no victory can fully separate the music from the geopolitics surrounding it.