The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was the 64th edition of the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

. It took place in Tel Aviv,

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, following the country's victory at the 2018 contest with the song " Toy" by Netta. Organised by the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the C ...

(EBU) and host broadcaster Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC/Kan), the contest was held at Expo Tel Aviv, and consisted of two semi-finals on 14 and 16 May, and a final on 18 May 2019. The three live shows were presented by Israeli television presenters Erez Tal,

Assi Azar Assi Azar ( he, אסי עזר; born 10 June 1979) is an Israeli television host. Biography Assi Azar was born in Holon, Israel.Lucy Ayoub, and Israeli model Bar Refaeli. Forty-one countries participated in the contest, with and not returning after their participation in the previous edition. Members of Bulgaria's delegation had been moved to other projects, while Ukraine, which had originally planned to participate, ultimately withdrew as a result of a controversy surrounding its national selection. The winner was the with the song " Arcade", performed by

Duncan Laurence Duncan de Moor (; born 11 April 1994), known professionally as Duncan Laurence, is a Dutch singer and songwriter. He represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with his song "Arcade" and went on to win the competition, gi ...

and written by Laurence along with Joel Sjöö,

Wouter Hardy Wouter Hardy (; born 3 April 1991), also known by his stage name HRDY, is a Dutch musician, songwriter and producer. He is known for his work with, among others, Duncan Laurence and Gjon's Tears. Career Hardy was born and raised in Boxtel, Nor ...

and Will Knox. , , and rounded out the top five, although, due to a voting error, were placed fifth and Sweden sixththis was corrected three days after the contest. Further down the table, and achieved their best results to date, finishing 7th and 19th respectively. finished 23rd in the final, making it the fourth time that the host country ranked in the bottom five since . The EBU reported that the contest had an audience of 182 million viewers in 40 European markets, a decrease of 4 million viewers from the previous edition. However, an increase of two percent in the 15–24 year old age range was reported. The lead-up to the contest was met with controversy on multiple fronts, primarily on issues surrounding the

Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most enduring conflicts, beginning in the mid-20th century. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, alongside other ef ...

this eventually led to demonstrations by interval act performer

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

and Icelandic entrants Hatari during the broadcast of the final.

Location

Expo Tel Aviv - Pavilion 2 - 20190227 13

The 2019 contest took place in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, following the country's victory at the 2018 edition with the song " Toy", performed by

Netta Barzilai Netta Barzilai ( he, נטע ברזילי; born 22 January 1993), also known mononymously as Netta, is an Israeli singer. After winning the fifth season of '' HaKokhav HaBa'', she earned the right to represent her country at the Eurovision Song ...

. It was the third time that Israel had hosted the contest, after having hosted the and contests in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. The selected venue was Expo Tel Aviv's 7,300-seat congress and convention centre in "Bitan 2" (Pavilion 2), which was opened in January 2015. Located on Rokach Boulevard in northern Tel Aviv, the convention centre serves as a venue for many events, including

concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide var ...

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibitio ...

trade fair A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and ...

s, and

conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

s. The fairground has ten halls and pavilions, plus a large outdoor space. The new pavilion had recently hosted the 2018 European Judo Championships from 26 to 28 April.

Bidding phase

After Israel's victory in the 2018 contest in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

, Netta Barzilai and the Israeli Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...

stated that the 2019 contest would be held in

, but this was yet to be confirmed by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC/Kan) and the

(EBU). Israeli finance minister Moshe Kahlon also said in an interview the event would be held solely in Jerusalem and estimated its cost at 120 million Israeli shekels (approximately €29 million). The mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, mentioned Jerusalem Arena and Teddy Stadium as possible venues to host the event. The municipality of Jerusalem confirmed that because it lacked the seating capacity, the contest would not be held at the International Convention Centre, which had hosted the contest in 1979 and 1999. On 18 June 2018, Netanyahu stated that Israel had committed to remaining in compliance with EBU rules regarding the constitution of member broadcasters, so as not to affect its hosting of Eurovision. Kan's establishment included a condition that news programming would be delegated later to a second public broadcasting entity. This would have violated EBU rules requiring member broadcasters to have their own internal news departments. The following day, Israel was officially confirmed as the host country, and on 24 June 2018, Kan formally opened the bidding process for cities interested in hosting the 2019 contest. Israeli deputy minister Michael Oren stated that Jerusalem did not have the resources to host the contest on 28 July, reiterating that Tel Aviv was the more likely host. Soon afterwards, reports surfaced of the government not providing the €12 million downpayment requested by Kan to cover hosting expenses and security. Following a tense back-and-forth between Kan and the government, a compromise between the two parties was reached on 29 July 2018 that would see Kan paying the €12 million to the EBU and the Finance Ministry covering expenses should complications arise. The mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, announced that the city would be willing to pay for the convention centre itself, should it be chosen as the host city. In the week of 27 August 2018, executive supervisor

Jon Ola Sand Jon Ola Sand (; born 21 December 1961) is a Norwegian television executive. He was the European Broadcasting Union's Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest from 2011 to 2020. Personal life He is the son of revue writer and actor B ...

led a handful of EBU delegates around Israel to look at potential venues in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and to hear the bid from Eilat. On 30 August 2018, Sand stated in an interview with Kan that Eilat was no longer in the running to host, leaving Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as the remaining cities in the running. He added that there was no serious discussion among members of the EBU about boycotting the event. On 13 September 2018, the EBU announced Tel Aviv as the host city, with Expo Tel Aviv as the chosen venue for the 2019 contest. Key: Host venue Shortlisted venues

Other sites

Located at the Charles Clore Park in Tel Aviv, the Eurovision Village was the official Eurovision Song Contest fan and sponsors' area during the events week. It was open from 12 to 18 May 2019. There it was possible to watch performances by local artists, as well as the live shows broadcast from the main venue. The EuroClub was located at Hangar 11 in

Tel Aviv Port Tel Aviv Port ( he, נמל תל אביב, Namal Tel Aviv) is a commercial and entertainment district in northwest Tel Aviv, Israel along the Mediterranean Sea. History in 1933 the Levant Fair was opened next to the waterfront area that would ...

and was the venue for the official after-parties and private performances by contest participants. Unlike the Eurovision Village, access to the EuroClub was restricted to accredited fans, delegates, and press. The "Orange Carpet" event, where the contestants and their delegations are presented before the accredited press and fans, took place at Habima Square in central Tel Aviv on 12 May 2019, followed by the Opening Ceremony at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium.

Format

Visual design

The contest's slogan, "Dare to Dream", was unveiled on 28 October 2018, while the official logo and branding were revealed on 8 January 2019. Designed by Awesome Tel Aviv and Studio Adam Feinberg, it consists of layered triangles designed to resemble a star, reflecting "the stars of the future" coming to Tel Aviv.

Postcards

Filmed between March and April 2019, and directed by Keren Hochma, the 2019 postcards involved the act travelling to a location in Israel that resembles that of their own country. An imaginary play button circled above the act's head, and, when the act pressed it, they performed a themed dance and threw the play button towards the screen, afterwards, it "flies over" to the stage where the ceiling lit up with their country's flag using

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be de ...

. The dances in each postcard were wide-ranging and included

parkour Parkour () is an athletic training discipline or sport in which practitioners (called ''traceurs'') attempt to get from point A to point B in the fastest and most efficient way possible, without assisting equipment and often while performing ...

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form ...

and

street dance Street dance is an umbrella term for a large number of social dance styles such as: breakdancing, popping, locking, house dance, waacking etc. Social dance styles have many accompanying steps and foundations, created organically from a cult ...

, among other styles. The following locations were used: * Banias Nature Reserve * Masada National Park *

Jaffa Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...

* Tel Aviv Bauhaus *

Gan HaShlosha National Park Gan HaShlosha National Park ( he, גן השלושה, literally: "Park of the three"), also known by its Arabic name Sakhne ( ar, الساخنة, literally: "The hot ool), is a national park in Israel. Located between kibbutzim Beit Alfa and Ni ...

* Rockefeller Archaeological Museum,

* Mitzpe Ramon *

The Israel Museum The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...

, Jerusalem *

Eilat Eilat ( , ; he, אֵילַת ; ar, إِيلَات, Īlāt) is Israel's southernmost city, with a population of , a busy port and popular resort at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jorda ...

Caesarea Caesarea () ( he, קֵיסָרְיָה, ), ''Keysariya'' or ''Qesarya'', often simplified to Keisarya, and Qaysaria, is an affluent town in north-central Israel, which inherits its name and much of its territory from the ancient city of Caesar ...

Jerusalem International YMCA Jerusalem International YMCA is a YMCA branch in Jerusalem established in the early twentieth century. History In 1924, Archibald Clinton Harte, General Secretary of the International YMCA, raised the sum of one million dollars towards the const ...

Tel Aviv Promenade Tel Aviv Promenade ( he, טיילת תל אביב-יפו, commonly referred to in Hebrew simply as the Tayelet, - "The Promenade") runs along the Mediterranean seashore in Tel Aviv, Israel. History In the late 1930s, the city council decided ...

* Financial District, Ramat Gan *

Tel Aviv Museum of Art Tel Aviv Museum of Art ( he, מוזיאון תל אביב לאמנות ''Muzeon Tel Aviv Leomanut'') is an art museum in Tel Aviv, Israel. The museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of modern and contemporary art from Israel and aro ...

Acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...

Sea of Galilee The Sea of Galilee ( he, יָם כִּנֶּרֶת, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ar, بحيرة طبريا), also called Lake Tiberias, Kinneret or Kinnereth, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest ...

* Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem * Beit Guvrin National Park * Beit She'an National Park * Palm Plantation, Eylot *

Old City Old City often refers to old town, the historic or original core of a city or town. Old City may refer to several places: Historical cities or regions of cities ''(by country)'' *Old City (Baku), Azerbaijan * Old City (Dhaka), Bangladesh, also ca ...

, Jerusalem * Ashdod Port * Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance, Tel Aviv * HaBonim Beach * Timna Park *

Zichron Yaakov Zikhron Ya'akov ( he, זִכְרוֹן יַעֲקֹב, ''lit.'' "Jacob's Memorial"; often shortened to just ''Zikhron'') is a town in Israel, south of Haifa, and part of the Haifa District. It is located at the southern end of the Carmel mounta ...

Wineries A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, ...

* Mikhmoret Beach *

Mount Arbel Mount Arbel ( he, הר ארבל, ''Har Arbel'') is a mountain in The Lower Galilee near Tiberias in Israel, with high cliffs, views of Mount Hermon and the Golan Heights, a cave-fortress, and ruins of an ancient synagogue. Mount Arbel sits acros ...

* Carmel Forest *

Judean Desert The Judaean Desert or Judean Desert ( he, מִדְבַּר יְהוּדָה, Midbar Yehuda}, both ''Desert of Judah'' or ''Judaean Desert''; ar, صحراء يهودا, Sahraa' Yahuda) is a desert in Palestine and Israel that lies east of Jerusa ...

* Mishkenot Sha'ananim, Jerusalem *

Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Ban ...

* Mount Hermon *

Tower of David The Tower of David ( he, מגדל דוד, Migdál Davíd), also known as the Citadel ( ar, القلعة, al-Qala'a), is an ancient citadel located near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. The citadel that stands today dates ...

, Jerusalem * Solar Thermal Power Station, Ashalim *

Cherry Blossom A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of Prunus, genus ''Prunus'' or Prunus subg. Cerasus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especia ...

Ein Zivan Ein Zivan ( he, עֵין זִיוָן) is an Israeli settlement organized as a kibbutz in the northern Golan Heights, under the jurisdiction of the Golan Regional Council. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the Golan Hei ...

* Ruhama Badlands *

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

* Charles Bronfman Auditorium * Bahá'í Gardens, Haifa

Presenters

On 25 January 2019, Kan announced that four presenters would host the three shows: TV hosts Erez Tal (who was also one of the Israeli commentators for the final) and

Assi Azar Assi Azar ( he, אסי עזר; born 10 June 1979) is an Israeli television host. Biography Assi Azar was born in Holon, Israel.Channel 12), supermodel Bar Refaeli and Kan host Lucy Ayoub (who was also the Israeli jury spokesperson at the 2018 contest). Tal and Refaeli were the main hosts, while Azar and Ayoub hosted the green room.

Semi-final allocation draw

The draw to determine the participating countries' semi-finals took place on 28 January 2019 at 17:00 CET, at the

. The thirty-six semi-finalists were divided over six pots, based on historical voting patterns as calculated by the contest's official televoting partner Digame. The purpose of drawing from different pots was to reduce the chance of "bloc voting" and to increase suspense in the semi-finals. The draw also determined which semi-final each of the six automatic qualifiers – host country Israel and " Big Five" countries , , , and the – would broadcast and vote in. The ceremony was hosted by contest presenters Assi Azar and Lucy Ayoub, and included the passing of the host city insignia from Duarte Cordeiro, vice mayor of

(host city of the previous contest) to Ron Huldai, mayor of Tel Aviv.

Voting system

On 30 March 2019, the EBU announced that the presentation of the televoting results during the final would change for the first time since the current voting system was introduced in 2016. The jury results' presentation remained the same with a live spokesperson in each participating country revealing the top song from their national jury that earned 12 points. In a change from previous years, the televoting result was revealed in the order of jury ranking, from the lowest to the highest.

Opening and interval acts

On 8 April 2019, it was confirmed that

would perform three songs during the final. The EBU later revealed they would be "

Future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that current ...

" featuring Quavo and " Like a Prayer" and a yet-to-be released song, "

Dark Ballet "Dark Ballet" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her fourteenth studio album ''Madame X (album), Madame X'' (2019). It was released on June 7, 2019 as the album's third promotional single. Written and produced by Madonna and lon ...

". On 15 April 2019, the EBU released further information about the opening and interval acts. The first semi-final was opened by

, performing a new version of her winning song " Toy", and also featured Dana International with " Just the Way You Are". The second semi-final included Shalva Band performing "

A Million Dreams "A Million Dreams" is a song performed by Ziv Zaifman, Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams for the film '' The Greatest Showman'' (2017). It is the second track from soundtrack of the film, '' The Greatest Showman: Original Motion Picture Soundtra ...

" and mentalist

Lior Suchard Lior Suchard ( he, ליאור סושרד, ; born 6 December 1981) is an Israeli mentalist and self-described "mystifier" who performs "supernatural entertainment". Early life Suchard was born in Haifa, Israel, as the youngest of three brother ...

. The final was opened with the traditional flag parade introducing the 26 finalists, which featured Netta Barzilai, Dana International with " Diva" and "Tel Aviv",

Nadav Guedj Nadav Guedj ( he, נדב גדג'; born 2 November 1998) is an Israeli singer and actor who represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. He is the winner of season two of '' HaKokhav HaBa'' (Israel's '' Rising Star''). Guedj was born in ...

with " Golden Boy" and Ilanit with " Ey Sham". In the "Switch Song" interval act, five former Eurovision participants were featured: Conchita Wurst performed " Heroes", Måns Zelmerlöw performed " Fuego", Eleni Foureira performed "

Dancing Lasha Tumbai Dance is a performing art art form, form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolism (arts), symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its chor ...

Verka Serduchka Andriy Mykhailovych Danylko ( uk, Андрі́й Миха́йлович Дани́лко; born 2 October 1973), better known as his drag persona Verka Serduchka ( uk, Вє́рка Сердю́чка, links=no, ; russian: Ве́рка Серд ...

performed "Toy", and

Gali Atari Gali Atari ( he, גלי עטרי; born December 29, 1953) is an Israeli singer and actress. Atari won the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 which was held in Jerusalem, as part of Milk and Honey. Early life Atari was born in Rehovot, Israel, to ...

, together with the four above-mentioned artists, performed her winning song " Hallelujah". Idan Raichel then performed "Bo’ee – Come to Me" together with the Idan Raichel Project. Netta Barzilai later performed her new single " Nana Banana", while actress Gal Gadot also appeared in a short video skit. Madonna's interval performance in the final was heavily criticised due to her poor vocal performance, and further criticisms were raised when her official YouTube channel uploaded a video of the performance with the vocals auto-tuned. Madonna's representatives at

Live Nation Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American global entertainment company and monopoly that was founded in 2010 following the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The company promotes, operates, and manages ticket sales for live entertai ...

were subject to a lawsuit by host broadcaster Kan following the performance.

Participating countries

The EBU initially announced on 7 November 2018 that 42 countries would participate in the contest, with opting not to participate for financial reasons. announced its withdrawal from the contest on 27 February 2019, thereby reducing the number of participating countries to 41. On 6 March 2019, the EBU confirmed would take part for the first time under its new name, instead of the previous name of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia which had been used since the country first participated in 1998.

Returning artists

The contest featured five representatives who had performed previously as lead vocalists for the same countries. Two of them participated in — Sergey Lazarev represented and won the semi-final, while

Serhat Serhat is a Turkish given name for males. People named Serhat include: * Serhat Akın Niyazi Serhat Akın (born 5 June 1981) is a retired Turkish footballer who played as a striker. Career Fenerbahçe He played for Fenerbahçe SK between 20 ...

represented in the semi-final.

Joci Pápai József "Joci" Pápai (; born 22 September 1981) is a Hungarian singer, rapper and guitarist of Romani descent. He represented Hungary at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song " Origo" finishing in 8th place. He represented Hungary aga ...

represented in .

Tamara Todevska Tamara Todevska ( mk, Тамара Тодевска, pronounced , born 1 June 1985), also known mononymously as Tamara, is a Macedonian pop singer. Tamara began her music career in 2003 following the release of her debut studio album '' Sino'' ...

represented (now named North Macedonia) in the semi-final, alongside Vrčak and

Adrian Adrian is a form of the Latin given name Adrianus or Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria from the Venetic and Illyrian word ''adur'', meaning "sea" or "water". The Adria was until the 8th century BC the mai ...

, and backed in and for Toše Proeski and Tijana Dapčević, respectively. Nevena Božović represented in the semi-final of as part of

Moje 3 Moje 3 ( sr-cyr, Моје 3; English: ''My 3'') was a Serbian girl group consisting of Mirna Radulović, Nevena Božović and Sara Jovanović. They represented Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö with the song " Ljubav je svud ...

, and in the

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007 The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the fifth edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in the Ahoy indoor sporting arena in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on 8 December. The host country was chosen by the European Bro ...

. The contest also featured a former backing vocalist representing his country for the first time—

Jurij Veklenko Jurijus Veklenko (born 6 July 1990 in Klaipėda), also known as Jurij Veklenko or simply Jurijus, is a Lithuanian singer. Eurovision Song Contest Veklenko previously performed at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 as one of the backing singers for ...

provided backup for Lithuania in and . On the other hand, previous representatives returned to provide supporting vocals for their own or another country. Mikheil Javakhishvili, in 2018 as part of Ethno-Jazz Band Iriao, backed

Oto Nemsadze Otar Nemsadze ( ka, ოთო ნემსაძე; born 18 June 1989) is a Georgian singer. Nemsadze is best known for winning season five of '' Geostar'' in 2010. He previously participated in season three of '' The Voice of Ukraine'', finishi ...

. Mikel Hennet, who represented in as part of

D'Nash D'Nash (often stylized as D'NASH, originally Nash) was a Spanish vocal group, best known for representing Spain in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Members * Basty - real name: Esteban Piñero Camacho - born 28 February 1981, Cádiz * Mikel - ...

, backed

Miki Miki may refer to: Places *Miki, Hyōgo, a city in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan *Miki, Kagawa, a town in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan *Miki, Azerbaijan, a village in Astara Rayon, Azerbaijan People *Miki (given name) *Miki (surname) *Miki Núñez (born ...

Stig Rästa Raul-Stig Rästa (born 24 February 1980) is an Estonian singer and songwriter who, along with singer Elina Born, represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song " Goodbye to Yesterday". Career Between 2002 and 2006 he form ...

, in alongside

Elina Born Elina Born (born 29 June 1994) is an Estonian singer. She represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 along with Stig Rästa with the song " Goodbye to Yesterday". She previously attempted to represent Estonia in the Eurovision Song ...

, backed

Victor Crone Victor Fritz-Crone (born 31 January 1992), also known as Victor Crone, is a Swedish singer, guitarist and songwriter. He represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv with the song "Storm". Biography Victor Crone was born ...

. Mladen Lukić, who represented in as part of

Balkanika Balkanika ( sr-cyr, Балканика) is a Serbian group formed by Sanja Ilić in 1998. They represented Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal, with the song " Nova deca". The mission of the group is, as affirmed by I ...

, backed Nevena Božović.

Sahlene Anna Cecilia Sahlin (born 11 May 1976), known professionally as Anna Sahlene and formerly by the one-word stage name Sahlene, is a Swedish performer best known as a singer: she placed third at the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 with " Runaway" ...

, who represented in , and provided backing for her native country in , for in and for in , backed for the this time.

Jacques Houdek Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...

, who represented in , backed Roko. Émilie Satt, who represented in 2018 as part of

Madame Monsieur Madame Monsieur is a French duo consisting of vocalist Émilie Satt and producer Jean-Karl Lucas. They represented France at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal with the song "Mercy", finishing in 13th place in the grand final. ...

, backed Bilal Hassani.

Destiny Chukunyere Destiny Chukunyere M.Q.R. (born 29 August 2002) is a Maltese singer. She won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015, where she represented Malta with the song "Not My Soul". In 2017, she participated in the eleventh series of ''Britain's Go ...

, who won the

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015 The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was the thirteenth edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest, and took place, for the first time, in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian national broadcaster BNT was the host broadcaster for the event. The fi ...

for Malta, backed Michela.

Semi-final 1

The first semi-final took place on 14 May 2019 at 22:00 IDT (21:00 CEST). Seventeen countries participated in the first semi-final. Those countries plus , and voted in this semi-final. was originally allocated to participate in the second half of the semi-final, but withdrew from the contest due to controversy over its national selection. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

Semi-final 2

The second semi-final took place on 16 May 2019 at 22:00 IDT (21:00 CEST). Eighteen countries participated in the second semi-final. Those countries plus , , and the voted in this semi-final. Switzerland was pre-drawn into this semi-final due to scheduling issues. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

Final

The final took place on 18 May 2019 at 22:00 IDT (21:00 CEST). Twenty-six countries participated in the final, with all forty-one participating countries eligible to vote.

Detailed voting results

Belarusian jury dismissal and incorrect aggregated vote

The Belarusian jury was dismissed following the revelation of their votes in the first semi-final, which is contrary to the rules of the contest. To comply with the contest's voting regulations, the EBU worked with its voting partner, Digame, to create a substitute aggregated result (calculated based on the results of other countries with similar voting records), which was approved by voting monitor

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewaterh ...

, to determine the Belarusian jury votes for the final. In these results, Israel, which did not receive points from any other jury during the final, received 12 points from Belarus. However, Twitter user @euro_bruno noted on 19 May that an incorrect substitute Belarusian result was purportedly used during the broadcast of the final. The mistake was later confirmed in a statement issued by the EBU on 22 May. According to the statement, the EBU "discovered that due to a human error an incorrect aggregated result was used. This had no impact on the calculation of points derived from televoting across the 41 participating countries and the overall winner and Top 4 songs of the contest remain unchanged. To respect both the artists and EBU Members which took part, hey wishedto correct the grand final results in accordance with the rules." The error, a reversal of the Belarusian aggregated votes, led to the bottom ten countries receiving points instead of the top ten. Malta, which had been incorrectly ranked last, would receive Belarus' 12 jury points, and Israel would end up with no jury points. The corrected point totals also changed some rankings: Sweden finished fifth overall instead of Norway, Belarus finished 24th overall instead of Germany, San Marino ended 19th despite losing four points, and North Macedonia won the jury vote instead of Sweden. The mistake made by the EBU and their voting partner was widely panned by the press. Dutch newspaper ''

Algemeen Dagblad The ''Algemeen Dagblad'' () or ''AD'' () (English: "General Daily Paper") is a Dutch daily newspaper based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. History and profile ''Algemeen Dagblad'' was founded in 1946. The paper is published in tabloid format and ...

'' said the EBU had to present the new vote totals "blushing with shame", calling the situation "chaos". British newspaper ''

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

'' thought the EBU had "screwed up", while the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

'' named the accidental reversal of the aggregated vote total a "scandalous blunder". A similar situation occurred in the , , , and contests, and in the semi-final of the contest, whereupon the results also had to be corrected after the broadcast due to an error with the votes. The corrected results have been used in all following scoreboards (where applicable).

Semi-final 1

12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's professional jury and televote in the first semi-final. Countries in bold gave the maximum 24 points (12 points apiece from professional jury and televoting) to the specified entrant.

Semi-final 2

12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's professional jury and televote in the second semi-final. Countries in bold gave the maximum 24 points (12 points apiece from professional jury and televoting) to the specified entrant.

Final

12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's professional jury and televote in the final. Countries in bold gave the maximum 24 points (12 points apiece from professional jury and televoting) to the specified entrant.

Spokespersons

The spokespersons announced the 12-point score from their respective country's national jury in the following order: # #

Faig Aghayev Faig Balagha oghlu Aghayev ( az, Faiq Balağa oğlu Ağayev, 29 December 1971) is an Azerbaijani pop singer and is the winner of the People's Artist of Azerbaijan award (2008).

# Ben Camille # Nikola Trajkovski # Monica Fabbri # Emma Wortelboer # Ajda Šufta #

Kelly Sildaru Kelly Sildaru (; born 17 February 2002) is an Estonian Olympic Games, Olympic Freestyle skiing, freestyle skier. Biography Sildaru won a gold medal in the slopestyle event in the Winter X Games XX, 2016 Winter X Games beating Tiril Sjåstad C ...

# Mateusz Szymkowiak #

Alexander Rybak Alexander Igorevich Rybak (russian: Александр Игоревич Рыбак) or Alyaxandr Iharavich Rybak ( be, Аляксандр Ігаравіч Рыбак; born 13 May 1986) is a Belarusian-Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pian ...

# Nieves Álvarez #

Philipp Hansa Philipp Hansa (born 3 June 1990) is an Austrian radio presenter and actor. He has been in films like ''Das Fest der Liebe'' (2012). After graduating in 2011, Hansa started working for the radio station HITRADIO Ö3, he has been both a radio pres ...

Rylan Clark-Neal Ross Richard Clark (born 25 October 1988), known professionally as Rylan, is an English broadcaster and model. He finished in fifth place on the ninth series of '' The X Factor'' in 2012, and the following year, he won the eleventh series of ...

# #

Andri Xhahu Andri Xhahu (born 30 April 1987 in Tirana, Albania) is an Albanian television and radio presenter, host and editor, who works for RTSH. Since 2012, he has served as the Albanian commentator and spokesperson for the Eurovision Song Contest. Care ...

# # Doina Stimpovschi # Sinéad Kennedy # Maria Vasilevich # Aram Mp3 # Ilinca # Hovig #

Electric Fields Electric Fields are an Aboriginal Australian electronic music duo made up of vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding and keyboard player and producer Michael Ross. Electric Fields combine modern electric-soul music with Aboriginal culture and sing in Pi ...

Ivan Bessonov Ivan Alekseevich Bessonov (russian: Ива́н Алексе́евич Бессо́нов; born July 24, 2002, Saint Petersburg, Russia) is a Russian pianist and composer, winner of the Eurovision Young Musicians 2018. He composes music and made ...

Barbara Schöneberger Barbara von Schierstädt (; born 5 March 1974) is a German television presenter, actress and singer. Early life Schöneberger is the only child of clarinet player Hans Schöneberger and his wife Annemarie. She studied sociology, art history and ...

# #

Eric Saade Eric Khaled Saade (; ar, إريك سعادة, ʾĪrik Saʿāda, ; born 29 October 1990), is a Swedish singer and songwriter. He spent two years with the boy band What's Up!, leaving the band in February 2009 to pursue a solo career. After winn ...

# Monika Lelas Halambek # # #

Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson (born 26 February 1980) is an Icelandic actor known for his roles in the TV series '' Game of Thrones'' and '' The Innocents'' and in the films ''Atomic Blonde ''Atomic Blonde'' is a 2017 American action thriller ...

# Gaga Abashidze #

Gus G Kostas Karamitroudis (born 12 September 1980), better known as Gus G, is a Greek heavy metal guitarist. He currently plays with his band Firewind. He has also played in Mystic Prophecy, Nightrage, Arch Enemy, Dream Evil and Ozzy Osbour ...

Laura Rizzotto Laura de Carvalho Rizzotto ( lv, Laura di Karvaļu Rizoto; born 18 July 1994) is a Latvian-Brazilian singer, songwriter, pianist and guitarist. She released her debut studio album ''Made in Rio'' in 2011 through Universal Music Brazil, which ...

# #

Rasmussen The surname Rasmussen () is a Danish and Norwegian surname, meaning '' Rasmus' son''. It is the ninth-most-common surname in Denmark, shared by about 1.9% of the population.

# # #

Sinplus Sinplus is an alternative rock duo made up of brothers Ivan and Gabriel Broggini originally from Locarno, Switzerland. Music career Growing up in a music-addicted family, Ivan (guitar) and Gabriel (vocals) Broggini were musicians before they ev ...

Lea Sirk Lea Sirk (born 1 September 1989) is a Slovenian singer, who represented her country in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018. Biography She started her musical education at the age of five in Koper, Slovenia. Between 2001 and 2007, Lea participa ...

Izhar Cohen Izhar Cohen ( he, יזהר כהן; born March 13, 1951) is an Israeli singer who won the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest. Biography Izhar Cohen was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and raised in Givatayim, to a family of singers of Yemenite-Jewish desc ...

Other countries

Eligibility for potential participation in the Eurovision Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with active EBU membership that will be able to broadcast the contest via the

Eurovision network Eurovision is a pan-European television telecommunications network owned and operated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It was founded 1954 in Geneva, Switzerland, and its first official transmission took place on 6 June 1954. Major tel ...

. The EBU issued an invitation to participate in the contest to all active members. The Israeli minister of communications,

Ayoob Kara Ayoob Kara ( ar, أيوب قرا, he, איוב קרא; born 12 March 1955) is an Israeli Druze politician. He has served as a member of the Knesset for Likud in four spells between 1999 and 2021, and as Minister of Communications. Biography ...

, also invited other countries from the

MENA MENA, an acronym in the English language, refers to a grouping of countries situated in and around the Middle East and North Africa. It is also known as WANA, SWANA, or NAWA, which alternatively refers to the Middle East as Western Asia (or a ...

region. With some Israel largely had tense relationships and others no diplomatic relations at all. Kara pointed out that

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

and the Gulf states, including

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

and the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

, were invited. Tunisia is eligible to participate but has not due to rules banning the promotion of Israeli content, while the Gulf states do not have national broadcasters with EBU membership.

Active EBU members

* – Despite being absent for 10 years, local media reported that

Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra, S.A. (RTVA) (; "Radio and Television of Andorra PLC") is the public television and radio broadcaster in the Principality of Andorra. It operates a television channel, ATV, and two radio stations, RNA and AM, all of ...

(RTVA) was still interested in returning to the contest, but the principality's failure to make the final along with the cost was discouraging the broadcaster from participating. For a return to take place, RTVA would need funding from the Andorran Government. On 19 May 2018, Andorra confirmed that they would not return in 2019. * – On 25 May 2018, the Bosnian broadcaster,

Radio and Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina BHRT (Bosnian-Herzegovinian Radio Television) ''Bosanskohercegovačka radiotelevizija''/ ''Босанскохерцеговачка радиотелевизија'') formerly known as PBSBiH (Public Broadcasting Service of Bosnia and Herzegovina ...

(BHRT), announced that it would not be participating in 2019, stating that the country would not be allowed to return to the contest until debt-related sanctions placed on them by the EBU are lifted. Bosnia and Herzegovina last took part in . * – Despite confirming their preliminary participation in the 2019 contest,

Bulgarian National Television The Bulgarian National Television ( Bulgarian: Българска национална телевизия, ''Balgarska natsionalna televizia'') or BNT (БНТ), stylized as ·Б·Н·Т· since 2018, is a public television broadcaster of Bulgari ...

(BNT) announced on 13 October 2018 that many members of the delegation were moving onto other projects, and on 15 October 2018, BNT announced that they would withdraw from the 2019 contest because of financial difficulties. * – On 31 May 2018, the Slovak broadcaster

Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska Radio and Television of Slovakia ( sk, Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska ) or RTVS is a nationwide public broadcasting, state-funded organisation in Slovakia. It is headquartered in Bratislava and led by Ľuboš Machaj. History The organization ...

(RTVS) announced that the country would not return to the contest in 2019 due to financial difficulties. Slovakia last took part in . * – Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said in an interview that Turkey had no plans to return to the contest. On 4 August 2018, İbrahim Eren, general manager of

Türkiye Radyo Televizyon Kurumu The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT; Turkish : ) is the national public broadcaster of Turkey, founded in 1964. TRT was for many years the only television and radio provider in Turkey. Before the introduction of commercial radio i ...

(TRT), said that at the moment the broadcaster was not considering returning to the contest for various reasons, including Conchita Wurst's victory for in . Turkey last took part in . * – On 27 February 2019, UA:PBC announced the withdrawal of the country from the contest, due to the

controversy Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of conflicting opinion or point of view. The word was coined from the Latin ''controversia'', as a composite of ''controversus'' – "turned in an opposite d ...

surrounding its national selection. Despite this, the channel still broadcast the show.

Associate EBU members

* – On 22 December 2017, the Ministry of Culture and Sport claimed that Channel 31 had finalised negotiations with the EBU, allowing Kazakhstan to debut in 2019; however, on 23 December 2017, the EBU stated that "Channel 31 Kazakhstan has indeed expressed interest in becoming a member of the EBU and hence participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. However, since Channel 31 is outside the

European Broadcasting Area The European Broadcasting Area (EBA) is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as such: :''The "European Broadcasting Area" is bounded on the west by the western boundary of Region 1, on the east by the meridian 40° East o ...

and is also not a member of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...

, it is not eligible to become an active member of the EBU." On 25 July 2018, it was announced that Kazakhstan would participate in the

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 was the sixteenth edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest, organised by the Belarusian Television and Radio Company (BTRC) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It took place in the Bela ...

, thus making a debut in 2019 possible. On 30 July 2018, the EBU stated that the decision to invite Kazakhstan was made solely by the Junior Eurovision Steering Group, and there were no current plans to invite associate members other than Australia. On 22 November 2018,

said in a press conference that "we need to discuss if we can invite our associate member Kazakhstan to take part in adult ESC in the future, but this is part of a broader discussion in the EBU and I hope we can get back to you on this issue later." However, he later clarified that Kazakhstan was not going to have an entry in the 2019 edition.

Non-EBU members

* – In June 2018, RTK general director Mentor Shala said that they were pushing for full membership to still be able to take part in the 2019 contest. However, in December 2018, RTK's membership vote was delayed until June 2019. * – On 4 November 2017, 1 Fürstentum Liechtenstein Television (1 FL TV), the national broadcaster of the Principality of Liechtenstein, confirmed that the country were planning a debut in the 2019 contest, and that they were applying for EBU membership and are "in heprocess of complying all requirements". They also reiterated their intention to select the participant through a national selection process in the form of ''Liechtenstein Music Contest''. However, on 20 July 2018, the EBU stated that 1 FL TV had not applied for membership. On 26 July 2018, 1 FL TV confirmed that Liechtenstein would not debut at the 2019 contest due to the sudden death of the broadcaster's director, Peter Kölbel.

Broadcasts

Countries may add commentary from commentators working on-location or remotely at the broadcaster. Commentators can add insight to the participating entries and the provision of voting information. The European Broadcasting Union provided international live streams of both semi-finals and the final through their official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel with no commentary. The live streams were geo-blocked to viewers in Bolivia, Canada, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay, United States and Venezuela due to rights limitations. After the live broadcasts, all three shows were made available for every country listed above, except the United States and Canada.

Incidents

Religious requests

On 14 May 2018,

Yaakov Litzman Yaakov Noach Litzman ( he, יַעֲקֹב נָח לִיצְמָן , born 2 September 1948) is an Israeli politician and former government minister. A follower of the Ger Hasidic dynasty, he heads Agudat Yisrael, part of the United Torah Judais ...

, leader of the ultra-Orthodox party

United Torah Judaism United Torah Judaism ( he, יהדות התורה, ''Yahadut HaTora''), often referred to by its electoral symbol Gimel (), is a Haredi, religious conservative political alliance in Israel. The alliance, consisting of Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaT ...

and Israel's former

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental health. Coun ...

, drafted a letter to the Ministers of

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

Communications Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

, and Culture and Sports, in which he requested the event not violate religious laws: "In the name of hundreds of thousands of Jewish citizens from all the populations and communities for whom

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...

observance is close to their hearts, I appeal to you, already at this early stage, before production and all the other details of the event has begun, to be strict n ensuringthat this matter does not harm the holiness of Shabbat and to work in every way to prevent the desecration of Shabbat, God forbid, as the law and the status quo requires". According to Jewish religious law, Shabbat is observed from just before sunset on Friday evening until Saturday night. The Saturday evening broadcast of the show, which were to start at 22:00 local time, would not conflict with this. However, the Friday evening jury show and Saturday afternoon rehearsals would. Similar protests arose in the lead-up to the , but then there were fewer competing delegations, which allowed for certain adjustments to be made to accommodate the issue. The chairman of the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group (the contest's executive board), Dr. Frank-Dieter Freiling, noted that he was well aware of the tension, and had plans to address it in his communications with host broadcaster Kan. Shalva Band, who performed as the interval act during the second semi-final, withdrew from Israel's national final citing similar concerns on possibly performing during Shabbat in the rehearsals for the final, should they have won.

Calls for boycott

The possibility of

being the venue for an Israeli-hosted contest led many proponents of the

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. Its objective is to pressure Israel to meet what the BDS movement describes as Israel's obligations ...

(BDS) movement to call on their national broadcasters to boycott the competition because of Israel's policies towards

Palestinians Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

and Gaza. This included members of the

Australian Greens The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and th ...

party,

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...

, Sweden's Left Party and many entertainers including 1994 contest winner Charlie McGettigan. The Icelandic broadcaster

RÚV Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) (pronounced or ) ( en, 'The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service') is Iceland's national public-service broadcasting organization. Operating from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional cent ...

met to discuss a boycott in response to a petition of 23,000 signatures, but ultimately neither RÚV nor any other broadcaster withdrew from the contest in response to boycott calls. In the event, viewing figures for the contest dropped to the joint lowest level since 2013. Several national selections were disrupted by BDS supporters calling for a boycott in the lead-up to the contest. This included the second semi-final of France's '' Destination Eurovision'', which was invaded by stage intruders who held up signs advocating a boycott; and selection events in , , and were all targeted by protesters outside the venues calling for a boycott. The EBU later sent a special letter to all participating broadcasters advising precautions they could take to prevent similar disruptions. An opinion piece in Sweden's largest newspaper '' Aftonbladet'', calling for a boycott of the contest and other cultural exchanges with Israel, was signed by 171 Swedish professionals in the cultural sector. In March 2019, LGBT activist groups Al Qaws and Pinkwatching Israel called for a boycott of the contest in opposition to Israeli " pinkwashing". In late April, over 100 celebrities including

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

and

Sharon Osbourne Sharon Rachel Osbourne (née Levy, later Arden; born 9 October 1952) is a British-American television personality, music manager and author. She is married to heavy metal singer-songwriter Ozzy Osbourne and came to prominence while appearing ...

signed a joint statement ''against'' boycotting Eurovision in Israel, asserting that any cultural boycott would be antithetical to advancing peace in the region.

Late Ukrainian withdrawal

During the final of the on 23 February 2019, it was announced that the

Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine The Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine ( uk, Національна суспільна телерадіокомпанія України, Natsionalna Suspilna Teleradiokompaniia Ukrainy; abbr. NSTU), shortened to Suspilne ( uk, Суспіль� ...

(UA:PBC) had reserved the right to change the decision made by the jury and the Ukrainian public. Following

Maruv Hanna Borysivna Korsun ( uk, Ганна Борисівна Корсун; , uk, Попелюх; born 15 February 1991), known professionally as Maruv (stylized in all caps), is a Ukrainian singer. She used to be part of the band Maruv from Fe ...

's win, it was reported the broadcaster had sent a contract to her management, requiring her to cancel all upcoming appearances and performances in Russia to represent Ukraine. She was also given 48 hours to sign the contract or be replaced. On 24 February 2019, Maruv revealed the contract sent to her by UA:PBC had also banned her from

improvising Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

on stage and communicating with any journalist without the permission of the broadcaster, and required her to fully comply with any requests from the broadcaster. Later, the broadcaster published a statement explaining every entry of the contract. If she failed to follow any of these clauses, she would be fined ₴2 million (~€65,500). Maruv also said the broadcaster would not give her any financial compensation for the competition and would not pay for her trip to Tel Aviv. On 25 February 2019, both Maruv and UA:PBC confirmed she would not represent Ukraine in the contest due to disputes over the contract, and that another act would be chosen. National final runner-up Freedom Jazz announced on 26 February they had also rejected the broadcaster's offer to represent Ukraine as did third-place finisher Kazka the following day. The incident garnered media coverage from major international outlets, including ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'', ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', ''

SBS News ''SBS World News'' is the news service of the Special Broadcasting Service in Australia. Its flagship nightly bulletin is broadcast at on SBS with additional weeknight 'late' bulletins from on SBS. ''SBS News'' is the name of the news app ...

'', ''

The Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines. Traditionally a broadsheet ne ...

'', ''

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...

'', ''

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

'', and ''

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

.'' On 27 February, UA:PBC announced its withdrawal from the contest.

Ticket sales controversy

The ticket prices for the year's event sparked criticism, both in Israel and abroad, with ''

The Times of Israel ''The Times of Israel'' is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist David Horovitz, who is also the founding editor, and American billionaire investor Seth Klarman.

'' calling them "likely the most expensive ever for Eurovision". Explanations for the high prices included the high cost of living in Israel and the fact that the Israeli government was not subsidising the Eurovision production. Although the venue could hold up to 10,000 people, only 7,300 seats were available because of the size of the stage, the technical equipment and the security features. Of those 7,300 seats, 3,000 had been reserved for the EBU, leaving only 4,300 for fans so that demand exceeded supply. On 3 March 2019, ticket sales were frozen because of irregularities noticed by the Oversight Committee of Kan. Hebrew-language Israeli media reported tickets being illegally resold for more than twice their original price. Public Security Minister

Gilad Erdan Gilad Menashe Erdan ( he, גִּלְעָד מְנַשֶּׁה אֶרְדָן, ; born 30 September 1970) is an Israelis, Israeli politician and diplomat serving as Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations since 2020. Erdan previo ...

ordered an investigation into the situation. On 14 March 2019, tickets sales resumed. According to Kan, 220 improperly-purchased tickets to the final live show were revoked and were sold again in the second round of ticket sales.

Technical issues

Cyber attack during semi-final 1

Kan suffered a cyber attack by a group of hackers that affected the broadcaster's accessibility livestreams of the first semi-final. The hackers were able to briefly show anti-Israeli statements on the streams such as "Israel is not safe, you will see" and "Risk of missile attack, please take shelter". The incident was investigated by both the broadcaster and the EBU. Kan released a statement regarding the incident saying: "The problem was fixed quickly, and it seems that during the first semi-finals a site was hacked here for a few minutes, and we believe that the messages were not seen by many people."

Semi-final 1 technical issues

Multiple broadcasters around Europe reported various issues during the live broadcast of the first semi-final. Viewers reported a loss of commentary from Tel Aviv in the Netherlands and North Macedonia. The Polish public broadcaster, TVP, had to replace their regular commentator Artur Orzech who was in Tel Aviv with another person who was based in Warsaw because viewers were unable to hear Orzech. Germany and the United Kingdom lost a portion of the show. On

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

, which broadcast the semi-finals in the UK, the programme cut out as the recap of the qualifiers of the first semi-final began to play, and was replaced by the message "We are sorry for the break in this programme and are trying to correct the fault" while the French broadcaster

France Télévisions France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (former ...

experienced audio issues during the Portuguese and Belgian performances. Similar technical issues happened during the .

Keiino's jury final performance

During Norway's jury final performance, two technical issues occurred in a short time. The screen turned black while Keiino performed their song "

Spirit in the Sky "Spirit in the Sky" is a song by American singer-songwriter Norman Greenbaum, originally written and recorded by Greenbaum and released in late 1969 from the album of the same name. The single became a gold record, selling two million copies f ...

". When the picture returned the camera operator was seen in the picture.

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting Aksjeselskap, AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and ...

complained to the EBU and requested a new run through, but the EBU rejected the complaints.

Jury vote issues

Following the reveal of the detailed jury voting, it emerged that three jurors appeared to have voted backwards in their semi-finals. In the first semi-final, Czech juror Jitka Zelenková ranked Portugal as her favourite entry, Slovenia as her least-favourite entry, and ranked Estonia as fourteenth on her list; this was directly opposite to the other Czech jurors, who all ranked Slovenia first and two who ranked Portugal last. In the final, Zelenková's rankings changed significantly; she listed Estonia as her fourth favourite and Slovenia as her sixth favourite. Neither Zelenková, the Czech broadcaster

Česká televize Czech Television ( cs, Česká televize, italics=no ; abbreviation: ČT) is a public television broadcaster in the Czech Republic, broadcasting seven channels. Established after the Velvet Revolution in 1992, it is the successor to Czechoslov ...

(ČT) nor the EBU had confirmed that her semi-final votes were reversed, but if this were corrected, Poland would have qualified to the final instead of Belarus. Swedish juror

Lina Hedlund Lina Maria Hedlund (born 28 March 1978) is a Swedish singer and member of the pop group Alcazar (band), Alcazar. She also has a solo career. Career Hedlund was born in Bollnäs. She has participated in Melodifestivalen a number of times, in M ...

also appeared to have voted backwards in the second semi-final. She ranked the Netherlands and Switzerland as her favourite entries in the final, but ranked them as her two least-favourite entries in the semi-final. Additionally, Hedlund ranked Austria her favourite entry in the semi-final, which led Austria to receive eight points from Sweden. Neither Hedlund, the Swedish broadcaster

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...

(SVT) nor the EBU had commented on the incident. The second semi-final also seemed to have had Russian juror Igor Gulyaev casting his votes in reverse order. In the semi-final, Gulyaev ranked Denmark first and Azerbaijan last, although he reversed these placements in the final. He also ranked Albania as his second least favourite entry in the semi-final, but conversely as his second favourite in the final. If his and Hedlund's votes were corrected, it would have had no impact on the result other than minor differences in the number of points received by each country. This was the second year in which a juror accidentally submitted their votes backwards. In the , Danish juror Hilda Heick ranked the entries backwards, resulting in Ukraine receiving 12 points from Denmark instead of Australia.

Political demonstrations during the final

The organisation of the Eurovision Song Contest in Israel faced protests due to the ongoing

, and not exclusively outside the venue. During

's interval performance in the final where she sang " Like a Prayer" and "

", the singer directed a monologue (part of her song "

") to backup dancers wearing

gas mask A gas mask is a mask used to protect the wearer from inhaling airborne pollutants and toxic gases. The mask forms a sealed cover over the nose and mouth, but may also cover the eyes and other vulnerable soft tissues of the face. Most gas mask ...

s between the two songs, alluding to the " torminside of us", saying "they think we are not aware of their crimes. We know, but we're just not ready to act". This was interpreted as a reference to the conflict. During "Future", two dancers—one wearing an Israeli, the other a

Palestinian flag The flag of Palestine ( ar, علم فلسطين) is a tricolor of three equal horizontal stripes (black, white, and green from top to bottom) overlaid by a red triangle issuing from the hoist. This flag is derived from the Pan-Arab colors and ...

on the back of their costumes—were seen holding each other while guest vocalist Quavo sang the lyrics: "Not everyone is coming to the future, not everyone is learning from the past". Madonna later stated that the use of Israeli and Palestinian flags was not a pro-Palestine demonstration, but a call for unity and peace. While receiving their points from the televotes, members of the Icelandic entry Hatari were seen showing banners that included the Palestinian flag. There had previously been concerns that the self-described anti-capitalist group would use their performance to protest the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, and the band had previously received warnings from the EBU about statements they had made prior to the contest. Following the flag incident, the EBU stated that "the consequences of this action will be discussed by the Reference Group after the Contest". Hatari subsequently announced a collaboration with Palestinian artist

Bashar Murad Bashar Murad (Arabic: بشار مراد; born 7 February 1993) is a Palestinian singer-songwriter and video artist based in East Jerusalem. His music addresses societal norms, the Israeli Occupation, and gender equality in the Middle East. He is ...

for their next single. The Icelandic broadcaster RÚV was eventually handed a -fine for the incident. The incident was retained on the official replay of the final on YouTube, but was edited out on the official DVD release.

Other awards

In addition to the main winner's trophy, the

Marcel Bezençon Awards The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia honouring the best competing songs in the final. Founded by Christer Björkman ( Sweden's representative in the Eurovision Song Contes ...

and the

Barbara Dex Award The Barbara Dex Award was a fan-voted accolade awarded annually to the worst-dressed contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest. The award was created by the fansite The House of Eurovision in 1997, which hosted it until the site's closure in 2 ...

were contested during the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. The

OGAE The (OGAE) () is a non-governmental and non-profit international organisation, consisting of 42 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs from across Europe and beyond. It was founded in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland by Jaripekka Koikkalainen. Four non-p ...

, "General Organisation of Eurovision Fans" voting poll also took place before the contest.

Marcel Bezençon Awards

The

, organised since 2002 by Sweden's then-Head of Delegation and 1992 representative

Christer Björkman Christer Samuel Björkman (; born 25 August 1957) is a Swedish singer and television producer. He represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1992 with the song "I morgon är en annan dag". From 2002 to 2021, he served as a producer of Me ...

, and 1984 winner

Richard Herrey Per ''Richard'' Herrey, born 1964 in Strömstad, is a Swedish artist, politician in the Moderate Party, media personality and restaurant manager. Biography Richard Herrey won Melodifestivalen in 1984 together with his brothers Per och Louis as ...

, honours songs in the contest's final. The awards are divided into three categories: Artistic Award, Composers Award, and Press Award. The winners were revealed shortly before the Eurovision final on 18 May.

OGAE

, an organisation of over forty Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, conducts an annual voting poll first held in 2002 as the Marcel Bezençon Fan Award. After all votes were cast, the top-ranked entry in the 2019 poll was Italy's "" performed by

Mahmood Mahmud is a transliteration of the male Arabic given name (), common in most parts of the Islamic world. It comes from the Arabic triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D, meaning ''praise'', along with ''Muhammad''. Siam Mahmud *Mahmood (singer) (born 19 ...

; the top five results are shown below.

Barbara Dex Award

The

is a humorous fan award given each year to the artist who wore the most notable outfit. First awarded in 1997, the award originally highlighted the worst-dressed artists in the competition, until this criterion was changed in 2019. Named after Belgium's representative who came last in the 1993 contest, wearing her self-designed dress, the award was handed by the fansite House of Eurovision from 1997 to 2016 and is being carried out by the fansite ''Songfestival.be'' since 2017.

Official album

''Eurovision Song Contest: Tel Aviv 2019'' is the official compilation album of the contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

digitally on 12 April 2019 and physically on 26 April 2019. The album features all 41 entries including the semi-finalists that failed to qualify for the final.

Charts

Notes

References

External links

* {{Eurovision Song Contest 2019 Music festivals in Israel 2019 song contests 2019 in Israel 2019 television specials May 2019 events in Europe Events in Tel Aviv Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Music controversies Television controversies

Location

Bidding phase

Other sites

Format

Visual design

Postcards

Presenters

Semi-final allocation draw

Voting system

Opening and interval acts

Participating countries

Returning artists

Semi-final 1

Semi-final 2

Final

Detailed voting results

Belarusian jury dismissal and incorrect aggregated vote

Semi-final 1

12 points

Semi-final 2

12 points

Final

12 points

Spokespersons

Other countries

Active EBU members

Associate EBU members

Non-EBU members

Broadcasts

Incidents

Religious requests

Calls for boycott

Late Ukrainian withdrawal

Ticket sales controversy

Technical issues

Cyber attack during semi-final 1

Semi-final 1 technical issues

Keiino's jury final performance

Jury vote issues

Political demonstrations during the final

Other awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

OGAE

Barbara Dex Award

Official album

Charts

See also

Notes

References

External links