The Eurovision Song Contest final began in Austria's capital Vienna on Saturday night amid a boycott by five countries over Israel's participation.
Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland and Slovenia have pulled out of the world's biggest live music contest, now in its 70th year, in protest at Israel's involvement.
"We will not be in Vienna, but we will do so with the conviction that we are on the right side of history," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on X on Friday.
Dispute over Israel's Gaza campaign casts shadow over Eurovision final
The contest, normally a glitzy affair typically featuring a host of kitsch, upbeat pop acts, has been marred in recent years by the dispute over Israel's military offensive in Gaza.That war, a response to the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023 where around 1,200 people in Israel were killed, resulted in the deaths of more than 70,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
