Juries boost Israel at Eurovision

Noam Bettan of Israel finished second at the Eurovision Song Contest final in Vienna on May 16 after a stronger-than-expected showing with professional juries helped offset a less dominant public vote. Bulgaria’s Dara won the contest with “Bangaranga,” scoring 516 points, according to Eurovision results. The result came after the European Broadcasting Union introduced voting reforms for the 2026 contest following months of disputes over Israel’s participation and the contest’s voting framework. The changes did not remove televoting, but they altered how organizers said they wanted the jury system to function within the broader result. ### How did Israel place higher than many forecasts suggested? Israel entered the final with betting markets and fan speculation pointing to a much weaker jury performance than its eventual result. The Times of Israel reported that Bettan’s song, “Michelle,” had been expected to finish only 16th with juries, while running much stronger with televoters. Instead, jury points helped push Israel into second place overall. (eurovisionworld.com) The official result listed Israel on 343 points, behind Bulgaria and ahead of the rest of the field. Eurovisionworld’s results page said Israel finished second overall, while the same page listed televoting, national juries and the “Rest of the World” vote as components of the final scoring system. ### What did the juries actually give Israel? Israel received 123 jury points in the grand final, according to the Times of Israel’s review of the voting breakdown. (timesofisrael.com) The report said Bettan picked up jury support from 22 of the 34 voting countries, a broader spread of backing than Israel received from juries in 2025. By comparison, Yuval Raphael, Israel’s 2025 entrant, received 60 jury points and placed 14th with juries before a much stronger televote lifted Israel to second overall that year, the same report said. (eurovisionworld.com) That contrast made 2026 notable not because Israel suddenly dominated the juries, but because jury support was materially less hostile than many observers had expected. (timesofisrael.com) ### What changed in Eurovision’s voting rules for 2026? The European Broadcasting Union approved a package of reforms in December 2025 instead of holding a direct vote on whether Israel should be excluded from the 2026 contest. The Times of Israel reported that the reforms were adopted by a large majority of EBU members, with Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland and Slovenia then saying they would leave the competition in protest. (timesofisrael.com) Martin Green, the Eurovision Song Contest director, said in an open letter before Vienna 2026 that the organizers were changing the voting framework after criticism from fans and broadcasters. The official Eurovision site said the new framework included the return of juries to the semi-finals, where they had previously been removed, as part of an effort to rebalance the system. (timesofisrael.com) The Times of Israel said the EBU appeared to want juries to have what it described as a “cooling effect” on more volatile public voting. That characterization was the newspaper’s, not a formal scoring rule, but it matched the direction of the reforms described by organizers ahead of the contest. ### Did Israel still do well with the public vote? (eurovision.tv) Israel still placed third in the televote, according to the Times of Israel, even though Bettan did not repeat the kind of public-vote surge Israel saw a year earlier. The same report said Israel did not win the “Rest of the World” vote in 2026 and received fewer top rankings from national televoters than in 2025. (timesofisrael.com) That split matters because Eurovision’s final result combines jury points and public votes. In 2025, Israel’s runner-up finish was driven mainly by viewers. In 2026, the runner-up finish depended more heavily on juries than many pre-contest forecasts had suggested. ### Where can readers check the breakdown themselves? Eurovision organizers publish split results after the contest, including separate jury and televote scores by country. (timesofisrael.com) Eurovision’s official results archive and results pages linked from contest coverage provide those country-by-country breakdowns, while Eurovisionworld also publishes a consolidated scoreboard for the Vienna contest. The next concrete reference point is the official publication of detailed split results for the 2026 final on Eurovision’s results pages, where readers can compare Bettan’s jury support with his televote totals country by country. (eurovision.tv)