<\/p>\n
The final of the Eurovision Song Contest got underway Saturday with tight security and rainy weather failing to dent the\u2026<\/p>\n
The final of the Eurovision Song Contest<\/a> got underway Saturday with tight security and rainy weather failing to dent the enthusiasm of the fans \u2014 or that of the critics who think Israel shouldn\u2019t have been invited<\/a> to the party.<\/p>\n After a week\u2019s buildup, acts from 25 countries took the stage at the Wiener Stadthalle arena in Vienna to battle for the continent\u2019s pop crown. Millions of viewers around the world will cast judgment on a fiery Finnish violinist, a Moldovan folk rapper, a Serbian metal band and many more at Eurovision\u2019s 70th anniversary event.<\/p>\n The contest has been clouded for a third year by calls for Israel to be excluded over its conflicts in Gaza and elsewhere, with five longtime participants \u2014 Spain,<\/a> the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia \u2014 boycotting in protest<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here is the latest: <\/p>\n Protesters called for Israel to be excluded from Eurovision demonstrated near the contest arena ahead of the final. Several hundred marched, with chants of \u201call of Vienna hates the ESC,\u201d a reference to the Eurovision Song Contest.<\/p>\n They were kept well away from the venue which lies behind a police security cordon.<\/p>\n Demonstrator Echo Vinasha Lex said it was \u201cimportant to protest against that idea that the song contest is not political. The song contest is a very political event.\u201d<\/p>\n At the start, a filmed opening montage showcased Austria\u2019s majestic scenery as a paper boat made its way to Vienna \u2014 a reference to 2025 Eurovision winner JJ\u2019s storm-tossed performance of \u201cWasted Love.\u201d<\/p>\n The show opened with a performance by last year\u2019s winner, the operatically trained Austrian singer JJ, and an Olympics-style flag parade of the 25 finalists. Then it was on to performances by the musicians, who have just 3 minutes to win over millions of viewers who, along with national juries of music professionals, pick the winner.<\/p>\n The hosts for the extravaganza on Saturday are Michael Ostrowski, an Austrian actor best known for German-language comedy films, and Victoria Swarovski, a model, singer, TV presenter and heir to the Swarovski crystal and luxury goods business.<\/p>\n The head of the Eurovision Song Contest has urged viewers to put politics aside and enjoy the \u201cbrilliant, wonderful, heartfelt show\u201d that is the competition\u2019s grand final.<\/p>\n As the contest turns 70 with calls for Israel to be kicked out over the conduct of its war in Gaza and a five-country boycott, Eurovision director Martin Green said the contest is a chance for a few hours to \u201cclose the curtains to the outside world and dream that something else is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n He told a news conference that for 70 years Eurovision has given \u201cvoice to the voiceless\u201d and celebrated marginalized communities.<\/p>\n \u201cHere\u2019s to the next 70 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Copyright \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source wtop.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The final of the Eurovision Song Contest got underway Saturday with tight security and rainy weather failing to dent the\u2026 The final of the Eurovision Song Contest got underway Saturday with tight security and rainy weather failing to dent the enthusiasm of the fans \u2014 or that of the critics who think Israel shouldn\u2019t have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2419749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2419748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/The-Latest-The-grand-final-in-this-years-Eurovision-Song.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2419748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2419750,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419748\/revisions\/2419750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2419749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2419748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2419748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2419748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Protesters call for Israel\u2019s exit from Eurovision ahead of the show<\/h2>\n
A tribute to the host as the Eurovision final kicks off<\/h2>\n
Eurovision director hails \u2018brilliant\u2019 show amid protests<\/h2>\n
\n \u00a9\u00a02026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n