The European Broadcasting Union said Oct. 28 that 36 broadcasters have confirmed they will compete at the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest in Burgas, Bulgaria. The Netherlands and Ireland won’t be among them.
Both are skipping a second straight contest over Israel’s participation, Reuters reported. Israel’s broadcaster KAN is on the EBU’s list. So is Canada, competing for the first time, and North Macedonia, back after four years away.
“In a world that can feel increasingly divided, it brings audiences together through music, across borders, languages and cultures, and that matters now more than ever,” Eurovision director Martin Green said in the announcement.
Semifinals are May 11 and 13 at Arena Burgas. The final is May 15. Bulgarian National Television is hosting because DARA won this year in Vienna with “Bangaranga.”
Bulgaria’s president signed a law in August 2024 that bans what it calls “propaganda” in schools about sexual orientations and gender identities lawmakers deemed nontraditional, RFE/RL reported.
NPO Drops Its Plan to Bring the Netherlands Back to Eurovision
The Dutch exit came Oct. 27. It undid a decision NPO, the country’s umbrella public broadcaster, made only a month earlier.
AVROTROS, the broadcaster that normally runs the Dutch entry, said in August it would boycott again. “The Eurovision Song Contest has therefore become a platform for division,” director-general Taco Zimmerman said, DutchNews.nl reported.
NPO announced on Sept. 23 that the Netherlands would go anyway. About 400 public broadcasting employees pushed back in a letter titled #NotMyEurovision, NL Times reported. They wrote that they “cannot accept that the desire to participate in an entertainment programme outweighs the countless lives of people who are being killed.”
NPO director Jet de Ranitz said this week that no broadcaster would agree to send a Dutch artist, the Associated Press reported.
“Due to the sensitivities surrounding the themes currently at play, we have decided to take a step back for the time being,” De Ranitz said.
Dutch viewers can still watch. NPO will air the shows.
Green responded the same day. “We’re deeply sorry that NPO will now not take part in the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest,” he said in an EBU statement. He pointed out that the Netherlands has been in the contest since the first one, in 1956.
RTÉ Won’t Send a Song or Air Eurovision 2027 in Ireland
Ireland’s position hasn’t moved since September. RTÉ isn’t competing, and it won’t broadcast the show either.
“RTÉ feels that Ireland’s participation cannot be justified given the appalling and ongoing loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk,” the broadcaster said, the PA news agency reported. Ireland has won the contest seven times.
Green said then that RTÉ “will be missed.”
Spain, Slovenia and Iceland Haven’t Decided on Burgas
Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia all sat out Vienna. Three of those five still haven’t given a final answer for 2027.
The EBU gave Spain’s RTVE and Slovenia’s RTVSLO until December. RTVE president José Pablo López told a Spanish Senate committee in September that it was “deeply painful” Israel’s broadcaster could keep competing, Euronews reported. Spain is one of the Big Five, the countries that put the most money into the contest.
The board of Iceland’s RÚV signaled in late September that it probably wouldn’t take part, Reuters reported. It hasn’t made it official.
Czechia is out too, for a different reason. “In light of the ongoing budget adjustments, Czech Television has decided not to participate in the 2027 edition,” the broadcaster said, Euronews reported.
The draw that splits the 31 semifinal acts into two shows takes place in Burgas in January.
