Boy George is out of the Eurovision Song Contest as Israel qualifies and viewers are left furious over ‘terrible’ sound issues during the first live semi-final in Vienna

The Eurovision Song Contest returned on Tuesday night, but it was unfortunate for Boy George as Israel was eliminated while still qualifying for the competition.

The show featured 15 artists competing to qualify for Saturday’s final, including Sweden, Croatia and current favorites Finland.

Israel reached the finals of the competition with the love-filled pop song Michelle, sung by 28-year-old Noam Bettan.

The festive atmosphere of the competition has been disrupted in recent years by controversy over Israel’s military action in Gaza. Five countries, including seven-time winners Ireland, boycotted the 2026 event.

Bettan faced a mixed reaction in the semi-final, with several spectators chanting anti-Israel slogans and booing, while others shouted his name in support.

Negative reactions to Bettan’s performance were heard on TV broadcast after ORF, the Austrian broadcaster hosting the show, said it would not censor protests or negative reactions towards any of the contestants.

Israel reached the final of the competition with the love-filled pop song Michelle, sung by 28-year-old Noam Bettan (pictured)

In a statement after the show, ORF and Eurovision organizers EBU said the audience was “close to the microphone” and “expressing their views loudly”, both as Israel prepared to take the stage and during their songs.

‘They were later removed by security because they continued to disturb the audience. In the statement, it was stated that the other three people were removed from the arena by security due to their disturbing behavior.

The semi-finals, held at Vienna’s Wiener Stadhalle, saw 10 nations qualify for Saturday’s grand final, including Finnish duo Pete Parkonnen and Linda Lampenius, who are the current favorites to win.

However, the fact that The Culture Club singer appeared as a guest artist in San Marino’s participation and did not succeed in the voting was a great disappointment for British star Boy George.

Spectators elsewhere in the competition Left angry over ‘audio issues’ Immediately following the broadcast, many on X complained that much of the background music drowned out the comments as well as hosts Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski.

They wrote: ‘Why is the mix so weird and the background music sounds louder than the presenters. I wish @bbc was better with sound in general but I had a problem with #Eurovision the first year :-(.’,

‘Can @BBC sort out the sound department? I can’t hear the comments at all! #Eurovision.’,

‘#eurovision, the background music in this esc fans section makes everything feel like AI.’,

‘#Eurovision Is the sound a little bad tonight? Is it a little hollow?’,

‘Is the sound really quiet this year? #Eurovisión #bbceurovsion.’,

‘Is the sound scary for everyone? #eurovision.’,

‘The sound is so terrible it ruins the songs, sad and unfair #Eurovision.’,

‘why is the audio so muddy #Eurovision’.’

The show featured 15 artists competing to qualify for Saturday’s final, including Sweden, Croatia and current favorites Finland (Finland’s Linda Lampenius was spotted).

The Culture Club singer’s guest appearance on San Marino’s entry, which failed to survive the vote, was a huge disappointment for British star Boy George.

Earlier on Tuesday, it was revealed that an Irish television channel would be airing a Eurovision-themed episode of Father Ted instead of the song contest final after it boycotted the event due to Israel’s involvement.

On Saturday night, the country’s national broadcaster RTÉ will air the sitcom’s iconic 1996 episode ‘A Song For Europe’, in which priest Ted and Dougal enter the ‘Eurosong’ contest, a parody of Eurovision, to represent Ireland.

The duo perform a disastrous minute-long song called ‘My Lovely Horse’ and receive ‘zero points’ after conspiring to prevent Ireland from winning and hosting the competition the following year.

The Eurovision Song Contest kicked off in Austria on Tuesday, but there was disagreement over Israel’s decision. participanthanging out at the event’s 70th anniversary.

The host city, Vienna, was decorated with hearts with this week’s slogan of the competition, where singers and groups from 35 countries will compete on stage for the musical crown of Europe, ‘Unity with Music’.

However, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland decided to boycott the competition due to Israel’s participation.

Ireland has won Eurovision seven times, making it, along with Sweden, the most successful country in the competition’s history.

However, RTÉ announced last December that it would not compete in Eurovision for the first time in 61 years, citing the ‘terrible loss of life in Gaza’.

The Eurovision Song Contest has officially started, but Israel’s participanthanging out at the event’s 70th anniversary.

The host city, Vienna, was decorated with hearts with this week’s slogan of the competition, where singers and groups from 35 countries will compete on stage for the musical crown of Europe, ‘Unity with Music’.

However, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland decided to boycott the competition due to Israel’s participation.

Eurovision viewers were also furious over ‘audio issues’ during the first live semi-final (hosts Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski seen)

However, immediately following the broadcast, many on X complained that the background music drowned out the comments as well as the hosts Victoria and Michael.

Ireland has won Eurovision seven times, making it, along with Sweden, the most successful country in the competition’s history.

However, RTÉ announced last December that it would not compete in Eurovision for the first time in 61 years, citing the ‘terrible loss of life in Gaza’.

Israeli singer Noam Bettan is among 15 artists competing for votes from audiences and the national jury at the Wiener Stadthalle arena on Tuesday.

Bettan is trying to take Israel, which came second in 2025, to Saturday’s final with the song ‘Michelle’.

Like last year’s Israeli contestant Yuval Raphael, he practiced singing while being booed.

Irish website Extra.ie congratulated RTÉ for the planning, which it described as ‘genius trolling’.

Meanwhile, Slovenia announced that it will release a documentary about Palestine.

“The national television program will be enlivened by the ‘Voices of Palestine’ thematic program series instead of the Eurovision circus,” Slovenian broadcaster RTV said.

Spain’s RTVE will broadcast its own special musical ‘The House of Music’.

The boycotts are a financial blow to Eurovision, which is largely funded by participating broadcasters, and to public broadcasters at a time when many are under financial pressure due to government funding cuts and social media competition.

Eurovision, long a forum for discussing good-natured and sometimes bitter national rivalries, has struggled to separate pop from politics in recent years.

Russia was expelled in 2022 following a large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Tensions rose again after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,200 people, and the subsequent Israeli operation in Gaza that killed more than 70,000 people.

The last two Eurovision contests have seen pro-Palestinian protests both outside and inside venues, forcing organizers to restrict political flag waving.

Many artists and countries have called for Israel, which has participated in Eurovision since 1973 and is one of the few non-European countries to do so, to be excluded from the competition.

The 2024 contest in Malmö, Sweden, and last year’s event in Basel, Switzerland, saw pro-Palestinian protests, including calls for Israel’s expulsion over its war against Hamas in Gaza and allegations that Israel ran an unregulated marketing campaign to get votes for its contestant after finishing second last year.

When organizers refused to kick out Israel, the five countries announced in December that they would not participate this year.

The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, has tightened voting rules in response to allegations of voting rigging, halving the number of votes per person to 10 and tightening safeguards against ‘suspicious or coordinated voting activity’.

Last year, Israel came second in the general classification with its song “New Day Will Rise”, receiving 83 percent of the score it received from the public.

The winner, Austria’s ‘Wasted Love’, received just 41 per cent of the public vote and had to rely on support from national juries to come out on top.

Posts and photos on the Israel

“Last year we saw some activity that we could describe as disproportionate marketing and promotional activity that we thought was incompatible with the nature of the show, so we put in place some rules around that,” Eurovision Song Contest Director Martin Green told Reuters, without directly referencing the posts.

Numerous pro-Palestinian demonstrations are planned for Vienna during Eurovision week, and security is being tightly maintained, with police officers from across Austria deployed in the capital and support from forces in neighboring Germany.