{"id":489884,"date":"2026-05-18T00:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T00:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/489884\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T00:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T00:40:19","slug":"bulgaria-denies-israel-eurovision-victory-in-tense-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/489884\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulgaria denies Israel Eurovision victory in tense final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bulgaria came out on top of this year\u2019s Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, finishing ahead of Israel by over 70 votes.<\/p>\n

The 2026 competition<\/a> was overshadowed by Israel\u2019s participation, which led to Ireland, Spain and three other countries boycotting it altogether.<\/p>\n

The Eurovision audience made their voices heard when Israel took the lead in Saturday\u2019s final, with boos and \u2018Free Palestine\u2019 chants ringing out across the arena.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bulgaria came out on top of this year\u2019s Eurovision Song Contest. Pic: HELMUT FOHRINGER \/ APA \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Israel received a huge 220 points in the audience vote<\/a>, leaving them at the top of the table before the final results were announced.<\/p>\n

As their points were called out, exceptionally loud booing was quickly moved along by the hosts, Austria.<\/p>\n

Over 1,000 musicians and cultural figures signed open letters calling for Israel to be excluded from the competition due to its ongoing bombardment of Gaza.<\/p>\n

\"\"Israel was loudly booed at the event. Pic: Christian Bruna\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, the Eurovision bosses were happy to sacrifice Ireland\u2019s and others\u2019 involvement to allow Israel to participate.<\/p>\n

In the end, Bulgarian singer Dara took home the grand prize in the country\u2019s first Eurovision success story.<\/p>\n

Bulgaria topped both the jury vote and overall scoreboard, finishing ahead of Israel in second place.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dara took home the grand prize in the country\u2019s first Eurovision success story. Pic: Christian Bruna\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Dara finished on 516 points, way ahead of Israel\u2019s 343, with her song Bangaranga winning the public\u2019s hearts in a surprise triumph.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters after the contest, Dara said: \u2018I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m sleeping, or is it a dream? I don\u2019t know.\u2019<\/p>\n

She added: \u2018I want to thank everyone out there who felt the force. And the force is God. And music is love.\u2019<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old slammed \u2018the chasing of perfection\u2019 in her victory speech, calling it \u2018a real problem in our society right now\u2019.<\/p>\n

Dara declared: \u2018Once we can drop the mask we can be true to who we are. That\u2019s the real Bangaranga.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m not good for discipline, you know \u2013 society discipline. I want to thank my husband \u2013 he was the one who pushed me to perform in Eurovision.\u2019<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the UK\u2019s contestant, Look Mum No Computer, finished the final with just one point in total after an abysmal voting score.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bulgaria came out on top of this year\u2019s Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, finishing ahead of Israel by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,19,17,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-489884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-tv"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116592799235532344","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}