RUV, the Icelandic national broadcaster, has announced that Iceland from the forthcoming 2026 Eurovision Song Contest in Austria.
Thus Iceland joins Spain, Slovenia, Ireland and the Netherlands who have all pulled out of the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2026 due to Israel’s participation.
It is yet unclear if RUV will go ahead with the Icelandic song festival- Songvakepnnin given that the country will not compete at Eurovision 2026. A decision will be taken in due time.
RUV’s official press release reads:
The Icelandic National Broadcasting Corporation has decided not to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria, next year.
The participation of the Israeli national broadcaster, KAN, in the contest has recently caused discord, both among the member stations of the European Broadcasting Union, EBU, and among the public. KAN’s participation was discussed in detail at EBU meetings earlier this year, first in London this summer and in Geneva last week. At the meeting in Geneva, a large majority of EBU member stations agreed that various changes that have been made to the rules and the implementation of the contest were satisfactory, and therefore there was no vote on KAN’s participation in the contest.
The director-general of the broadcaster explained at the meeting in Geneva that although the changes met many of the comments that RÚV representatives had made at various stages of the EBU cooperation in recent years, RÚV still had doubts about their usefulness. It had been repeatedly stated that stakeholders in Iceland, for example artists’ associations, and the Icelandic public were opposed to participation in the competition. The board of RÚV had then requested that the EBU remove KAN from the competition, taking into account precedents. The issue was complex to resolve and had already damaged the reputation of the competition and the EBU. It was important to find a solution for all parties involved.
It is clear from the public debate in this country and the reaction to the EBU’s decision made last week that there will be neither joy nor peace regarding RÚV’s participation in Eurovision. It is therefore RÚV’s decision to inform the EBU today that RÚV will not participate in Eurovision next year.
The Song Contest and Eurovision have always had the goal of uniting the Icelandic people, but it is now clear that that goal will not be achieved and this decision is made on those programmatic grounds.
There has been no decision yet on whether Songvakepnnin will be held by RÚV next year. The available options are being evaluated and a decision will be announced when it is available.
Iceland in Eurovision
Iceland debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1986 and is yet to win the event. The country achieved its best results in the competition in 1999 (Selma) and 2009 ( Yohanna) when it placed 2nd in the Grand Final.
The Nordic nation has partaken in Europe’s favorite television show 37 times.
In 2025 VAEB represented Iceland at the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel with their entry ‘Roa’.
