EUROVISION 2026 - General Discussion Thread

[ESC United Mod Team]

This thread is for any general Eurovision 2026 discussion not limited to or specifically about any country's national selections or song choices or not warranting its own thread.

 

[ag89]

My proposal is that row needs to be splitted: row Europe, row n.america, row s.america, row oceasia, row Africa.

That was Israel will get 60 ROTW points as long as they campaign they way they have done it since 2023.

 

[Harry]

What's the difference than using a smartphone, the landline and a credit card?
I've voted 60 times as well (+ asked my mother to cast 20 votes as well with her phone). - Thus, we sent 120 votes in total (semi 2 and GF).

That "maximum of 20 votes" is the same rule for everyone - It's not "per person" - it's per device/sim card/landline for years now.

In the UK you can only vote by calling… which may be the solution. All these other voting methods can be far easier to manipulate. Most people have more than one card. I have my UK card, my international one I use for 0% fees abroad and my credit card. That’s 60 votes when I should only have 20. Calling in would reduce the amount of fraud given most people only have one phone…

 

[GRE]

That was Israel will get 60 ROTW points as long as they campaign they way they have done it since 2023.

Well, this will happen only if Israel remains in the contest, and EBU don't bann them.

 

[Mainshow]

In the UK you can only vote by calling… which may be the solution. All these other voting methods can be far easier to manipulate. Most people have more than one card. I have my UK card, my international one I use for 0% fees abroad and my credit card. That’s 60 votes when I should only have 20. Calling in would reduce the amount of fraud given most people only have one phone…

That would be the best option, yes.

But what about the fans who attend the show or watch it with friends or at a bar/venue. They wouldn't be picking the phones to make phone calls.
Also, there's a shift from phone calls to online-based communication. Since we've got PayPal and so on, I don't see the problem with using credit cards to verify your votes.

Yes, you can have more than one card - but you can have more than 1 sim card as well.

Let us not forget that Gen Z and even some millenials are already afraid of picking up a phone when someone calls - I think that they would prefer making votes via text messages/a credit card and since it's a TV show and Eurovision has become more popular, it whould be possible for young(er) people to cast votes that way.

 

[Harry]

That would be the best option, yes.

But what about the fans who attend the show or watch it with friends or at a bar/venue. They wouldn't be picking the phones to make phone calls.
Also, there's a shift from phone calls to online-based communication. Since we've got PayPal and so on, I don't see the problem with using credit cards to verify your votes.

Yes, you can have more than one card - but you can have more than 1 sim card as well.

Let us not forget that Gen Z and even some millenials are already afraid of picking up a phone when someone calls - I think that they would prefer making votes via text messages/a credit card and since it's a TV show and Eurovision has become more popular, it whould be possible for young(er) people to cast votes that way.

You can still use your mobile to call from a bar or another venue. Unfortunately whilst voting discrepancies are being reported, all avenues should be explored to prevent it - if that means removing some newer voting methods then so be it in my view. We’ve coped before - we’d probably get a more valid result anyway!

Buying a new SIM card and changing it over to vote another 20 times is a lot more effort than just using a 2nd payment card (which most of us have by default) - it would cut those numbers.

 

[Mainshow]

You can still use your mobile to call from a bar or another venue. Unfortunately whilst voting discrepancies are being reported, all avenues should be explored to prevent it - if that means removing some newer voting methods then so be it in my view. We’ve coped before - we’d probably get a more valid result anyway!

Buying a new SIM card and changing it over to vote another 20 times is a lot more effort than just using a 2nd payment card (which most of us have by default) - it would cut those numbers.

I would never call from my phone from another venue if I can prevent it - it costs WAY more than calling from landline or sending a text message from my phone.

I still fail to see why I - as a viewer and fan - shouldn't be able to vote 20 times each (landline/phone/credit card).

It's not "unfair" if I want to spend money on my favourite TV show.
I don't smoke. I don't drink alcohol. I don't even watch TV - it's the only occasion I go all in

 

[Harry]

I would never call from my phone from another venue if I can prevent it - it costs WAY more than calling from landline or sending a text message from my phone.

I still fail to see why I - as a viewer and fan - shouldn't be able to vote 20 times each (landline/phone/credit card).

It's not "unfair" if I want to spend money on my favourite TV show.
I don't smoke. I don't drink alcohol. I don't even watch TV - it's the only occasion I go all in

That’s down to your country, in the UK for example calls from a mobile are charged at the same rate as a landline now for Eurovision.

The whole idea of “why shouldn’t I spend an obscene amount of money on votes if I want to” is a completely different debate that brings poverty and privilege awareness into it which I don’t wish to explore. I understand where you’re coming from, however the arguments brought to the table by fans here and elsewhere in the Eurovision community is that there was a targeted campaign of vote rigging with the intention to show a political advantage on the world stage. Nothing to do with genuine fans, however it does spoil it for them

 

[Mainshow]

That’s down to your country, in the UK for example calls from a mobile are charged at the same rate as a landline now for Eurovision.

The whole idea of “why shouldn’t I spend an obscene amount of money on votes if I want to” is a completely different debate that brings poverty and privilege awareness into it which I don’t wish to explore. I understand where you’re coming from, however the arguments brought to the table by fans here and elsewhere in the Eurovision community is that there was a targeted campaign of vote rigging with the intention to show a political advantage on the world stage. Nothing to do with genuine fans, however it does spoil it for them

20 votes per landline costs 2,40€; it doesn't get cheaper than that. I know that countries such as Finland and Estonia are ripping off their viewers by charing a hell amount of a single vote.

I agree with the fandom, though - it should be fair - but it's impossible to not allow people making use of different sim cards.
They can't expect people to simply make phone calls either - there will be a massive drop in televoting and it's EBU's aim to reach as many people as possible.
I highly believe that some countries even rely on people voting several times so that their televoting results will be even taken into account. I read a few years ago (maybe even a decade) that even Albania struggled at some time - that's why the EBU hadn't released the total votes for many years so that people can't influence "little countries"'s score - I think there's a amount of votes a single country has to get, otherwise the EBu would be using the jury score/calculated score.

 

[Ana Raquel]

In the UK you can only vote by calling… which may be the solution. All these other voting methods can be far easier to manipulate. Most people have more than one card. I have my UK card, my international one I use for 0% fees abroad and my credit card. That’s 60 votes when I should only have 20. Calling in would reduce the amount of fraud given most people only have one phone…

If people have two sim cards can't they vote twice, though? Don't know how common it is in the UK but at least here lots of people have more than one sim card.

 

[Harry]

If people have two sim cards can't they vote twice, though? Don't know how common it is in the UK but at least here lots of people have more than one sim card.

Foreign nationals who are only here temporarily (primarily study or holiday) tend to have more than one SIM, if at all. It’s not really a thing here

 

[Ewigkeit]

I highly doubt anything will change. Israel will probably send another song of the same kind. They’ll score high in the televote again. But thanks to the jury vote, another song that placed lower in the televote will end up taking the crown. Countries like Spain and Iceland will grumble at first, but in the end, they’ll confirm their participation as always. Same old story. My question, however, is: how many more years will this loop go on?

 

[blue00eyes]

Truth is every country can do the thing Israel does. Anyone can vote 20 times - it's allowed. How to solve the problem I don't know. Mess

 

[Ajeje Brazorf]

I'm on a pessimist side: 36. I have the weird feeling Czechia will withdraw and nobody wants their place. Not even the countries that participated before.

Eurovision need a strong rules reshuffle if it wants to experience another 2011 with 4 countries back in one year (and one was long gone, as you know).

 

[Storm]

Israel to the West is now what Russia was to the East in the 2000s, high points for non-musical reasons. It's hilarious if it wasnt so sad, like the West was so self-righteous about political/neighbor voting and now they have their own case. Rigging needs to be investigated of course, but probably it wouldn't even be necessary. I mean why would Israel not rig votes in the East then? It's probably a lot easier to do it in a small country like Slovenia or Montenegro vs rigging the vote in the biggest countries on the continent? But you just have these Israel supporters that can outnumber the opposition in the current voting system. I mean remember Ukraine would still send 12 points to Russia even after the Crimea invasion, just because you still had enough pro-Russian people in the country voting for it...

I don't know what can be done about it. We still have the juries in place and they were brought back to prevent Russia from winning over and over (more or less). I don't think the EBU would be willing to change the rules even more. Preferential voting for the audience could be a thing but don't know how it could be implemented.

 

[ESCConor]

Israel to the West is now what Russia was to the East in the 2000s, high points for non-musical reasons. It's hilarious if it wasnt so sad, like the West was so self-righteous about political/neighbor voting and now they have their own case. Rigging needs to be investigated of course, but probably it wouldn't even be necessary. I mean why would Israel not rig votes in the East then? It's probably a lot easier to do it in a small country like Slovenia or Montenegro vs rigging the vote in the biggest countries on the continent? But you just have these Israel supporters that can outnumber the opposition in the current voting system. I mean remember Ukraine would still send 12 points to Russia even after the Crimea invasion, just because you still had enough pro-Russian people in the country voting for it...

I don't know what can be done about it. We still have the juries in place and they were brought back to prevent Russia from winning over and over (more or less). I don't think the EBU would be willing to change the rules even more. Preferential voting for the audience could be a thing but don't know how it could be implemented.

If you want to go down the route of preferential voting, then you would have to do away with phone votes and have a purely online/app voting system, im not sure if that would be implemented especially given there needs to be phone votes for the older audience.

I personally would support limiting the number of votes per person from 20 to 5 and you can only vote for a country once.

 

[empo21]

I highly doubt anything will change. Israel will probably send another song of the same kind. They’ll score high in the televote again. But thanks to the jury vote, another song that placed lower in the televote will end up taking the crown. Countries like Spain and Iceland will grumble at first, but in the end, they’ll confirm their participation as always. Same old story. My question, however, is: how many more years will this loop go on?

Until Israel eventually wins and demands to host the event. EBU convinced Ukraine that hosting there would be dangerous and they agreed, but I don't think Israel will back down that easily and it'll create tension and maybe some withdrawals. Then Germany will be the hero and take over hosting along with KAN representatives, but I'm guessing KAN will push their own ideas harder.

 

[GermanBango]

Until Israel eventually wins and demands to host the event. EBU convinced Ukraine that hosting there would be dangerous and they agreed, but I don't think Israel will back down that easily and it'll create tension and maybe some withdrawals. Then Germany will be the hero and take over hosting along with KAN representatives, but I'm guessing KAN will push their own ideas harder.

I threw up a little while reading that because I can actually see that happening.

Anyway with the latest statements from the EBU and ORF literally throwing JJ under the bus, it is crystal clear that KAN has a free pass to do whatever they want.

 

[Slabsson79]

I threw up a little while reading that because I can actually see that happening.

Anyway with the latest statements from the EBU and ORF literally throwing JJ under the bus, it is crystal clear that KAN has a free pass to do whatever they want.

ORF and EBU take an "action" a stance and you blame KAN. Okay. A choice.

 

[GermanBango]

ORF and EBU take an "action" a stance and you blame KAN. Okay. A choice.

I blamed ORF and EBU actually. You read what you want to read. A choice.

 

[Fluke]

Anyone else think if Israel actually won't participate next year, they'll try to prop up Israeli artists for other countries (possibly several) and continue with supporting these instead?