Eurovision: More Than Just Music
For years, longtime fans have known that Eurovision is not solely about the music. While glitter, spectacle, and over-the-top staging remain central, the contest has increasingly become a blend of politics, branding, economics, and soft power. This year, with the grand finale airing this Sunday, these tensions are impossible to ignore.
Spain, one of Eurovision's "Big Five," along with Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Iceland, has withdrawn from the 2026 contest amid controversy over Israel's participation. While political reasons dominate headlines, a broader issue is at play: Eurovision is becoming an increasingly expensive and risky investment for broadcasters.
The Price of Participation
Participation is not cheap. Countries pay entry fees to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), while the Big Five—the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain—contribute more heavily to the contest's funding. Winning only adds financial pressure. Liverpool's hosting of Eurovision 2023 reportedly cost around £20 million in public funding through UK government and BBC support. At a time when broadcasters across Europe face tighter budgets, this is a major commitment.
For smaller public broadcasters, Eurovision can become difficult to justify when budgets are already strained by cuts to entertainment and cultural programming. Spending millions on participation or hosting quickly becomes politically sensitive if audiences question the contest's value. However, Eurovision can also generate huge returns. Liverpool's contest delivered an estimated £54 million boost to the local economy, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors and a global TV audience of over 160 million. Hosting also provided a branding opportunity that most tourism campaigns could only dream of.
For artists, Eurovision can still be career-changing. Måneskin, Duncan Laurence, and Rosa Linn all used the contest as a launchpad to global success. The problem is that these rewards are unevenly distributed.
Success Has Become Harder to Predict
As a fan, one noticeable trend is how disconnected jury votes and public votes have become. Switzerland's 2025 entry received 214 jury points but zero from the public—one of the biggest mismatches in Eurovision history. Israel saw the opposite: just 60 jury points but a massive 297 from televoters. Anyone who watches Eurovision annually knows the contest is not judged purely on musical quality. The inevitable Greece and Cyprus "douze points" joke appears every year for a reason. Beyond the humor, voting patterns increasingly reflect diaspora networks, geopolitics, and visibility as much as the songs themselves.
Casual viewers often miss how differently juries and televoters behave. Juries tend to reward technical vocals, composition, and staging. Public votes are more emotional and reactive. A performance that goes viral online or becomes politically symbolic can completely reshape the scoreboard. Take Finland's 'Cha Cha Cha' from 2023—many fans took to social media stating it should have won over Sweden's Loreen.
That is partly why Eurovision results now feel less predictable than a decade ago. Songs are no longer competing in a vacuum; they compete within wider political and cultural conversations across Europe at that moment. This creates a major disadvantage for smaller countries. Malta is probably the clearest example. In 2021, it received 208 jury points but just 47 from the public, despite entering the final as one of the favorites. Over time, smaller broadcasters inevitably start asking whether the investment is worth it. This is not new. Countries including Montenegro, Moldova, Bulgaria, and Romania have all stepped away from Eurovision in recent years before later returning, often citing financial pressures or limited returns.
The Eurovision Marketplace
That is why the current withdrawals matter. Politics may have accelerated some decisions, but the underlying issue is that Eurovision increasingly resembles a marketplace where countries weigh costs, risks, and reputational exposure against potential rewards. As a fan, I still love Eurovision. Millions of people across Europe clearly do. Part of Eurovision's appeal has always been that it brings together countries, languages, and cultures that rarely share the same stage elsewhere. For one night, Europe feels connected through music in a way that very few events manage.
That is why the current tensions surrounding the contest feel so significant. Eurovision has always contained politics beneath the surface, but it now feels much harder for organizers to maintain the idea that the competition is politically neutral. It would be naive to pretend the contest is simply about the music anymore. Eurovision today is about influence, identity, politics, and economics, all wrapped up in three minutes on stage.
Matthew Allen is a lecturer in economics at the University of Salford.
