The Netherlands boycott Eurovision 2027 as public broadcaster withdraws
The 2027 iteration of Eurovision will be held in Burgas, Bulgaria (Picture: Shutterstock/DirkVG)
Dutch broadcaster AvroTros will boycott next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, in protest over Israel’s participation amid the ‘severe humanitarian suffering’ inflicted on Gaza.
The public service broadcaster, which is part of the NPO, an umbrella organisation for the Dutch public broadcasting system, cited the recent Eurovision rule changes in the decision.
Ahead of the 2027 contest – which will take place in Burgas following Bulgarian singer Dara’s 2026 win – bosses introduced a new set of rules, which prevent a winning country from hosting the following year’s contest if in an armed conflict.
But in a lengthy statement, AvroTros said these rule-changes were not sufficient.
The statement said of Eurovision: ‘The event can no longer be considered neutral, with a participating country still involved in a large-scale military conflict.
‘Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are having a significant impact on the Contest and have led to deep divisions.
Eurovision has faced an existential crisis in recent years over its inclusion of Israel (Picture: Elisabeth Mandl/Reuters)
Joost Klein represented the Netherlands in 2024, pictured here at the semi-final dress rehearsal in Malmo (Picture: AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
‘The recently announced changes by the EBU do not provide sufficient confidence that the independent and neutral character of the Eurovision Song Contest has been restored.’
The broadcaster went on to say participation in the competition was ‘no longer consistent with the values of AvroTros: trustworthiness, independence and humanity’.
The decision from AvroTros to withdraw does not strictly rule out the Netherlands from Eurovision, as another Dutch broadcaster may step in in their place.
AvroTros says it will hand the decision on Dutch participation to the NPO.
The decision on Dutch participation will be handed to the public broadcaster’s umbrella organisation (Picture: Christian Bruna/Getty Images)
The statement contiued: ‘The severe humanitarian suffering in Gaza and the ongoing restrictions on press freedom have contributed to increasing divisions surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest in recent years.’
AvroTros cited several countries, including the Netherlands, boycotting the 2026 Eurovision Contest, as well as an open letter calling on the EBU to ban Israel’s public broadcaster, KAN.
The statement continued: ‘This underlines the need for a clear framework for assessing the participation of countries involved in military conflicts.
‘Under which circumstances is participation compatible with a neutral Eurovision Song Contest, and when is it not? For AVROTROS, it remains unclear on what basis the EBU makes that assessment.’
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