Bulgaria’s Dara was the surprise winner of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Bangaranga.
Israel came second after receiving a large number of votes from viewers at home.
Dara finished the contest with a total of 516 points, ahead of Israel’s Noam Bettan, with the song Michelle, on 343 points.
Romania’s Alexandra Capitanescu, with the song Choke Me, finished third on 296 points. Australia’s entry Eclipse, sung by Delta Goodrem, came fourth.
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Dara’s triumph is a first victory in the 70-year history of the song contest for Bulgaria, which only joined Eurovision in 2005 and sat out the last three editions.
Bulgaria’s surprise win means the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and other participating broadcasters will be spared a huge headache. Had second-placed Israel won, organisers would have faced difficult questions over where to host the song contest’s 2027 edition.
Ireland was one of five countries which declined to enter a song in this year’s contest, in protest at Israel’s continued actions in Gaza. The contest was not shown on RTÉ on Saturday night; instead the national broadcaster aired an episode of comedy series Father Ted in which Ted and Dougal enter the Eurovision Song Contest with their song My Lovely Horse.
The 70th anniversary of the musical extravaganza took place in Vienna, after Austria’s operatic contestant JJ triumphed last year. About 10,000 spectators watched the show at Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle venue, with an expected TV audience in excess of 100 million. It was the third time the Alpine republic has hosted the event.
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The grand final saw musical acts representing 25 countries, with Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania returning after being absent in previous years. Controversially, Eurovision’s anniversary was celebrated without five nations who boycotted the event over the continued participation of Israel while attacks continue in Gaza.
Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland all declined to participate after the EBU changed the rules around multiple votes and state-sponsored promotion of songs, but stopped short of preventing Israeli broadcaster Kan participating.
Police said about 2,000 people turned out for a protest against Israel’s inclusion in Vienna’s city centre earlier on Saturday.
On the night, Israel’s entry Michelle, a romantic pop song about a toxic relationship performed by Noam Bettan, came in at second place after performing strongly in the public vote.
Austrian broadcaster ORF had said in advance it would not officially employ so-called anti-booing technology for home viewers used at some previous editions, but the crowd reaction to Bettan taking to the stage was warm compared to singer Yuval Raphael’s reception in 2025.
There was some booing during the read-out of Israel’s public vote, in response to a group of fans continuing to chant Israel’s name.
In the highly polarised previous two editions of the song contest, Israel had performed strongly in the public vote, coming second in 2025. Other nations’ broadcasters voiced concerns about the Israeli government’s heavy promotion of its acts through its social media channels, leading voting rules to be changed for Vienna.
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This year, fans were allowed to cast 10 individual votes, down from 20 in previous years. Voting for the same act 10 times was allowed, but fans were not allowed to vote for the act representing the country they were calling from.
The UK finished last with the song Eins, Zwei, Drei by Look Mum No Computer aka Sam Battle.
– Guardian/agencies
