Eurovision vote message mix-up involving Israel sparks unfounded theories
Israel’s participation in the Eurovision has been a controversial aspect of the song contest for years, but particularly since it launched its deadly war on the Gaza Strip
The 69th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest kicked off on Tuesday, May 13, with the first semi-final, with another to be held on Thursday ahead of the grand final on Saturday.
After the first Eurovision Song Contest semi-final, claims circulated on social media that Norwegian fans who had tried to vote for Croatia received a message thanking them for voting for Israel.
Screenshots of the reply message after a vote for Croatia were shared around on fan forums and by social media pages dedicated to the Eurovision Song Contest. Examples could be seen on Reddit, Facebook and X, while the phenomenon was also reported on in local media in both Norway and Croatia.
Translated into English, the message said: “Thank you for voting for Israel! You can vote 20 times, so if you like the entry, you can vote again. Best regards Eurovision 2025.”
At the first semi-final, Croatia performed in the number 14 slot, meaning that members of the voting public would text ’14’ to register a vote. Israel did not perform at the first semi-final; their act was due to perform at the second semi-final, also in the 14th slot.
Since Israel was not in the first semi-final, it was not possible to vote for them on Tuesday night. This led to widespread confusion after fans received a message thanking them for their vote for Israel.
Posts about the message also prompted some social media users to question whether a wider conspiracy was at play. Theories around politically-motivated voting and agenda-driven technical errors are common fodder for the song contest’s superfans and close observers.
Reacting to posts sharing the story, social media users wrote comments such as: “Not the zionists f-cking up the ESC again”, “are we even surprised…”, “You’re f-cking kidding me did they rig this”, “I wouldn’t consider this sus if it weren’t for the fact this exact thing happened last year”, “this is so suspicious???” and “F-ck the cheaters”.
‘Incorrect message’
Firstly, we wanted to see if the screenshots were genuine. A statement from Martin Green, Director of the Eurovision Song Contest, confirmed the story and moved to reassure fans that their votes were correctly counted.
“Our voting partner Once has confirmed that a valid vote was recorded in all countries participating in this year’s First Semi Final. Some voters in Norway received an incorrect message when voting but votes for all countries were correctly attributed and this did not impact the result,” Green said.
The artist for Croatia, Marko Bošnjak, did not qualify for the final with his song ‘Poison Cake’.
The automated message error was likely a technical mix-up between act 14 on Tuesday and act 14 on Thursday. In any case, it was not possible to vote for Israel at the first semi-final, so votes destined for Croatia could not have accidentally been sent to an act not appearing that same evening.
However, while the mistake could have affected any of the participating countries, the fact that Israel was involved may have heightened the reaction around the incident.
Israel backlash
Israel’s participation in the Eurovision has been a controversial aspect of the song contest for years, but particularly since it launched its deadly war on the Gaza Strip which has killed at least 52,000 Palestinians and left millions displaced, hungry, and lacking vital medical care.
Ahead of the 2025 song contest, more than 70 former participants signed an open letter demanding that Israel be removed from the competition, citing the country’s “genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and the decades-long regime of apartheid and military occupation against the entire Palestinian people”.
It wasn’t just activists raising concerns about Israel’s participation in the contest. Ahead of this year’s edition, Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE, Irish broadcaster RTÉ, and RTVSLO in Slovenia were among the EBU members that requested a discussion on the participation of Israel’s broadcaster KAN in the competition.
The Eurovision Song Contest also drew Israel-related protests in 2025 and in 2024, both outside participating broadcasters and at the event itself. Last year, Eurovision News Spotlight debunked years-old footage purporting to show a pro-Palestinian protest surrounding the event in Malmö.
In 2024, the Israeli entry Eden Golan had to change her lyrics ahead of the event, over apparent references to the October 7, 2023, attack. This year, Israel is being represented by Yuval Raphael, who is herself a survivor of the Hamas attack at the Nova music festival.
SOURCES
Reddit.com. (2025). Reddit – The heart of the internet. [online] According to Croatian and Norwegian media, if you voted for Croatia from Norway in SF1, it would say that you voted for Israel. [Accessed 15 May 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: According to VG; if you voted for number 14 and Croatia, the reply was that you voted for Israel instead.. [Accessed 15 May 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: Interesting @EBU_HQ
?!?! [Accessed 15 May 2025].
France 24. (2025). Spain public broadcaster calls for ‘debate’ over Israel’s Eurovision participation. [online] France 24.
RTÉ Entertainment (2025). ‘Commitment’ from EBU for talks on Israel in Eurovision. RTE.ie. [online]. [Accessed 15 May 2025].
Ford, L. (2025). Former Eurovision Stars Demand Israel Be Banned From 2025 Contest. [online] The Hollywood Reporter. [Accessed 15 May 2025].
Artists for Palestine UK. (2025). Dozens of ex-Eurovision contestants demand exclusion of Israel from contest. [online] [Accessed 15 May 2025].
Zionists keep mentioning 7 October as a holy day in which everything started. It did NOT.
In the 6 months alone prior to 7 October 400 Palestinians were killed by Israeli colonists. The weapons were handed out by a ruling minister. Mind you, I even didn’t go back to 1903 when the first pogroms and massacres by Zionist on Palestinian villages started.
Last year, Israel admitted that it had tried to gain an advantage through public voting but stated that it hadn’t helped them much.
There is now such widespread opposition to what Israel is doing to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank that even if Israel had the best song this year, it is highly unlikely that the public—mindful of the conflict—would vote en masse for Israel.
It therefore strongly appears that Israel has found a more effective way to manipulate the public vote this year.
If this is not investigated—and the issue that more than 20 votes can be cast from the same phone number (a system clearly designed more for generating extra revenue than for fair representation) remains unaddressed—it primarily benefits those trying to manipulate the vote.
If the EBU fails to investigate this and does nothing about the vulnerabilities in the public voting system, there is a high chance that Israel could win the Eurovision Song Contest in 2026 (and not because it has the best song).
The EBU repeatedly claims that it does not make political decisions, yet the fact that countries like Israel and Armenia were allowed to join the EBU is, in itself, a political decision—unless all countries are allowed to join.
The EBU has admitted non-European countries, and as long as this mistake is not corrected, it will continue to face justified criticism and pressure to take action and speak out on global conflicts.
Hopefully, the EBU will seize the opportunity to revoke Israel’s membership if there is further evidence of manipulation.
And hopefully, the EBU will also decide that only European countries should be allowed to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest.
If the design flaw regarding the number of votes the public can cast is not addressed, Israel will continue to exploit it—and likely, in the future, so will Russia.
The EBU risks losing public trust, as people will not accept fraudulent results.