{"id":39987,"date":"2026-08-24T12:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T12:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/39987\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T12:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T12:26:11","slug":"netherlands-pulls-out-of-2027-eurovision-song-contest-for-second-year-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/39987\/","title":{"rendered":"Netherlands pulls out of 2027 Eurovision Song Contest for second year \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Netherlands has pulled out of the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n

Dutch public service broadcaster Avrotros appeared to blame Israel\u2019s continued participation in the event for its decision when it said it had decided to leave amid \u201chumanitarian suffering in Gaza and the ongoing restrictions on press freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n

A statement from the broadcaster read: \u201cAvrotros will not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2027 because the event can no longer be considered neutral, with a participating country still involved in a large-scale military conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeopolitical tensions in the Middle East are having a significant impact on the contest and have led to deep divisions.<\/p>\n

\"‘What<\/a>\"Maggie<\/a>\"TheThe Netherlands also pulled out of the 2026 event, won by Bulgaria\u2019s Dara (Ian West\/PA) <\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past year, Avrotros has called on the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to establish transparent rules for the participation of countries involved in military conflicts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the recently announced changes by the EBU do not provide sufficient confidence that the independent and neutral character of the Eurovision Song Contest has been restored.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eurovision announced earlier this month that winners will be ineligible to host the contest if they are involved in \u201carmed conflict\u201d or a \u201csensitive geopolitical situation\u201d, but did not rule out allowing those countries to take part.<\/p>\n

Taco Zimmerman, director-general of Avrotros, added: \u201cThe Eurovision Song Contest was originally created to bring people and countries together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is undeniable that international conflicts are increasingly affecting the contest, undermining its neutral character.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Eurovision Song Contest has therefore become a platform for division. As a public broadcaster, we remain committed to our values. They guide us in everything we do, even when that means stepping away from an event that is very close to our hearts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is painful as we would have very much liked to be part of the contest again next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Netherlands was one of a number of countries that boycotted 2026\u2019s event in Vienna, Austria, due to Israel\u2019s continued participation amid its actions in Gaza, along with Iceland, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia.<\/p>\n

\"LastLast year\u2019s contest saw a number of protests over Israel\u2019s inclusion (Ian West\/PA) <\/p>\n

There were a number of protests in the Austrian capital during Eurovision over Israel\u2019s inclusion in the contest amid its actions in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The largest protest was the No Stage For Genocide event, organised by Palestine Solidarity Austria, which took place at Venediger Au, a playpark on the outskirts of Vienna, and attended by hundreds of supporters.<\/p>\n

Human rights group Amnesty International has also criticised the EBU for its failure to suspend Israel because of its actions in Gaza, as it did with Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, calling it an act of \u201ccowardice\u201d and a \u201cblatant double standard\u201d.<\/p>\n

Next year\u2019s song contest will take place in Burgas, Bulgaria, after the country\u2019s entrant Dara won this year\u2019s event with her song Bangaranga.<\/p>\n

Israeli entrant Noam Bettan finished second in last year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

Only Ireland and Sweden have won Eurovision more than the Netherlands \u2013 which last won in 2019. Rotterdam hosted the 2021 contest as a result, after the 2020 event was cancelled during the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

Eurovision has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Netherlands has pulled out of the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest for the second year in a row.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[717,6,3046,994],"class_list":["post-39987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netherlands","tag-eurovision","tag-netherlands","tag-showbiz","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}