AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.So far, the contest’s organizers have kept politics offstage.

The European edition shows how difficult that can be.A demonstration against Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria, this year.Credit...Max Slovencik/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesNov. 14, 2026, 8:17 a.m.

ETGeopolitics have long intruded on the Eurovision Song Contest. But they were not really a factor as the event prepared to expand into Asia for the first time.That was still true as of Saturday evening, as the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest Asia was about to start in Bangkok.Over the decades, Eurovision organizers have insisted that the contest is nonpolitical.

Its organizers impose rules governing lyrics, political symbols and what can be broadcast. Even so, wars and diplomatic disputes have shaped who gets to sing, who stays home and what broadcasters are willing to air.“Politics is why we watch Eurovision,” said Dean Vuletic, a historian of the show at the University of Luxembourg.Here are some examples of geopolitics bleeding into the European edition of the contest:In 2009, less than a year after fighting a war with Russia, the former Soviet republic of Georgia planned to send a disco song called “We Don’t Wanna Put In” to Eurovision.

Eurovision’s organizers said that the apparent dig at Vladimir Putin, then Russia’s prime minister, had to go. Georgia pulled out instead of changing it.In 2017, Russia pulled out of the contest in Kyiv after Ukraine barred its singer from entering the country.

And five years later, after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Eurovision barred Russia altogether.In 2024, the war in Gaza triggered mass protests over Israel’s participation. A bitter dispute over government influence on voting followed in 2025, and there were boycotts of the contest by five countries in 2026, the biggest crisis in Eurovision’s 70-year history.The 11 Asian countries that sent artists to Saturday’s show have plenty of offstage geopolitical friction.Cambodia, for example, is set to sing in Thailand’s capital less than a year after a border war between the two neighbors killed dozens and displaced hundreds of thousands.

As fighting picked up last year, Cambodia withdrew its athletes from the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, citing safety concerns.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?

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