Eurovision 2026: Israel's official performance clip mutes crowd protest heard live

Image credit: Alma Bengtson/EBU

The first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest took place last night - and the participation of Israeli broadcaster KAN continues to be a flashpoint for controversy.

During Noam Bettan's performance of Michelle, pro-Palestinian chants from the live audience were audible on the audio track of the televised broadcast.

Footage has also emerged online of at least one protester being removed from the arena during the performance.

Subsequent to the live broadcast of the first semi-final, the performance of the Israeli entry has been uploaded to Youtube - but now with the audience feedback removed.

The EBU has provided the following statement about this decision:

We believe the focus of the Eurovision Song Contest should be on artists and music. We therefore removed the audio heard on the live broadcast during the Israeli entry the First Semi-Final before uploading the performance to our YouTube channel."

Over the past two years, the editing of audience feedback in the live broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest has become a source of controversy, with so-called "anti-booing" technology employed to mute the sound of the live studio audience during the broadcast.

In December 2025, Austrian broadcaster ORF stated to Reuters that said the broadcast of the Eurovision 2026 would not repeat this approach, and that the broadcaster would reflect what happens inside the arena.

“We will not sugarcoat anything or avoid showing what is happening, because our task is to show things as they are,” said ORF executive producer at the time Michael Krön.

When asked about the decision to mute audience feedback on the YouTube clip of the Israeli performance at a press conference on 13 May 2026, a representative of ORF said that the decision was a matter for the EBU.

It is expected that pro-Palestine protests will continue to take place throughout the remainder of the week of the Eurovision Song Contest this year. Vienna's police service have stated that they are expecting approximately 3000 people to attend a "Solidarity with Palestine" protest on the day of the Eurovision Grand Final.

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