The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 Season Commences

It’s September 1, which means the start of a new Eurovision Song Contest season as all eyes turn to Vienna in May.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 season commences today, with songs commercially released from today eligible to compete next May in Austria. The long process of whittling thousands of songs down to one Eurovision winner commences. The rules of the Eurovision Song Contest state that for a song to be eligible to compete:

The songs (lyrics and music compositions) submitted to represent the country of each Participating Broadcaster’s country in the ESC must be original and must not have been released and/or publicly performed in part or in full before the Release Date (see the Event Schedule).

While this rule has become less strict in the past decade, today is the first day of the new Eurovision Song Contest selection season. So what do we know already?

Where is Eurovision 2026 being held?

Austria will host the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 following JJ’s victory for the nation in Basel with “Wasted Love”. As a result, the competition returns to Austria for a third time. Vienna will host the 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest will take place at the Wiener Stadthalle, the same venue that hosted Eurovision in 2015. The venue can hold up to 16,000 spectators, and the city can also count on robust tourist infrastructure and an international airport.

Vienna is the capital of Austria and is home to nearly 3 million people, which is just over a third of the population of Austria. The city is at the crossroads of Europe and has a rich history on the Danube River. The city is no stranger to Eurovision contests, having previously hosted eight Eurovision contests, including six editions of Eurovision Young Musicians.

Who will compete at Eurovision 2026?

The deadline for broadcasters to confirm their intention to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 is approaching. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will announce a complete list later this month. However, 19 countries have already publicly confirmed their intention to compete in Vienna.

Albania

RTSH of Albania confirmed their intention to compete in Eurovision 2026 back in June. Festivali i Këngës is expected to be used once again to select the Albanian representative for Eurovision. The song submission window for Festivali i Këngës 64 will open today and will remain open until September 30. Anyone looking to submit a song must send their songs to festivali64@rtsh.al.

The Festivali i Këngës 64 selection committee will review all of the submissions and select a number of submissions to compete in Festivali i Këngës 64 in December. The exact dates and format for the contest have yet to be revealed.

Austria

Austria is set to hold its first televised national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest since 2016. The televised national final will take place in the second half of February with 10 acts competing to represent Austria at the 70th Eurovision Song Contest.

The winner of the Austrian selection will be determined by a mix of televoting and a professional jury. Acts are invited to apply directly to ORF to compete in the national selection. A pre-selection will be held internally to determine the ten acts that will compete in the televised final.

Cyprus

CyBC confirmed their participation in Eurovision 2026 at the start of August. 2026 will be the 42nd appearance of the island nation in the competition since their debut in 1981.

Once again, Cyprus is organising an internal selection to select their participant for the Eurovision Song Contest. The last time Cyprus used a national final was in 2015, with John Karayiannis representing the country in Austria with “One Thing I Should Have Done”, finishing 22nd in the Grand Final.

Denmark

Denmark will be using Dansk Melodi Grand Prix to select their participant for the 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. The show returns for its 56th edition on February 14 and will be held at the Arena Nord in Frederikshavn, North Jutland region.

The song submission window for Dansk Melodi Grand Prix 2026 opened on July 2 and will remain open until midnight CEST on November 2. Find out more here.

Finland

Finland will once again use UMK to select their representative for Eurovision 2026, with song submissions already closed for the competition.

A mix of professional and public juries will be used to select the acts and songs that will compete in UMK 2026. The professional jury will be chaired by YleX’s music manager Tapio Hakanen and will be formed of music professionals. This jury will then be joined by five public juries that are formed of a diverse group of people. Between these six juries they will select the songs competing to represent Finland at Eurovision 2026.

UMK 2026 will take place on February 28 in Nokia Arena in Tampere. The winner will represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Austria.

Germany

SWR takes over as the German broadcaster in charge of the nations participation in the Eurovision Song Contest for the 2026 edition. The broadcaster was chosen by ARD to organise participation after NDR had organised German participation between 1996 and 2025.

No details have yet been announced regarding how the German representative for the contest in Vienna will be chosen.

Greece

Greece will make its 46th appearance in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2026. Following its success in 2025, Greece will use Ethnikós Telikós to select their participant for Vienna.

Greece returned to holding a national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2025, having last held a selection in 2017. According to Greek media, ERT is reportedly planning to expand the number of shows in Ethnikós Telikós. Instead of one show, the selection would consist of two semi-finals and a final, all of which would be held over a “Eurovision Week”.

Iceland

The Icelandic broadcaster RÚV opened song submissions for Söngvakeppnin, the Icelandic national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest at the end of last week. The 2026 edition will mark 40 years of Iceland competing in the Eurovision Song Contest and will be the 32nd time that Söngvakeppnin will select the Icelandic representative for the competition.

The rules for Söngvakeppnin 2026 have not been announced, but song submissions will remain open until September 23. Song submissions are open now to Icelandic citizens through Mitt RÚV.

Israel

On July 1, the Israeli broadcaster KAN confirmed that it intends to participate in the 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. 2026 would be the 48th time that Israel has competed in the contest since its debut in 1973.

Latvia

LSM will be competing in Vienna and will use Supernova to select their participant. For the first time since 2019, this year’s Supernova will consist of two semi-finals and a final over the course of three weeks.

The semi-finals will take place on January 31 and February 7, while the final will take place on February 14. Across the two semi-finals, 10 entries will qualify for the final. LSM also added that they will be allowed to award a wildcard to one entry that did not originally qualify for the final.

Lithuania

Lithuania will be using Eurovizija.lt to select their participant for the contest in Austria, with changes announced to the format of the show. A wildcard round has been introduced for all of the acts that placed third in their semi-final. The public will be able to vote online once for the act they want to see in the final. The act that receives the highest number of votes will compete in the final.

In the final, the superfinal has now been scrapped. Instead, there will be just one round of voting, with the jury and public voting to determine the Lithuanian representative for Eurovision 2026.

Once the song submission window closes on November 11, the selection commission has until November 25 to select at least 30 songs to participate in the selection. The final versions of these selected songs must be submitted to LRT by December 23. Participants can withdraw from Eurovizija.lt without financial penalty until December 10.

Luxembourg

The third edition of the Luxembourg Song Contest will take place on January 24 in Rockhal in Esch-sur-Alzette. The live final will see several acts compete to represent Luxembourg at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Austria.

The application window for the Luxembourg Song Contest is open until September 21. Once the window has closed, all applications will be assessed and successful candidates will be invited to audition in front of an international expert jury during the month of October. This jury will select the finalists of the Luxembourg Song Contest 2026.

Malta

Malta confirmed its participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 at the end of May. PBS organised The Malta Eurovision Music Exchange Camp to bring together songwriters and producers from Malta and Europe to collaborate with Maltese singers for the Malta Eurovision Song Contest. Last year’s camp produced 18 songs for MESC, with 40% of the participants also going on to work on songs for other countries that competed in Eurovision 2025.

Montenegro

RTCG has confirmed Montenegro’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna, with the release of the rules for Montesong 2025.

Montesong will be used for a second time to select the Montenegrin representative for the Eurovision Song Contest. RTCG has published the rules for the competition today, following a board meeting in August. Up to 16 songs will be chosen to compete in Montesong 2025, with a song needing to score a minimum of 75 points from a committee to receive a place in the contest.

Of note is that should the quality of submissions to Montesong be of too low a quality, RTCG reserves the right to internally select their entry. The broadcaster also reserves the right to replace the performer of any competing song.

Netherlands

The Netherlands will compete in Vienna, Austria. The Netherlands will follow the same selection process as seen in recent years. Once the submissions window closes a number of sessions will be held from “a small number of promising entries”. The aim of AVROTROS is to select the Dutch entry in December.

Norway

Norway’s search for Eurovision 2026 is already underway. Today is the last day for songs to be submitted for Melodi Grand Prix 2026, which will select the Norwegian representative for Vienna. This is the 64th time that MGP will be used to select the Norwegian Eurovision entrant.

Serbia

Serbia will make its 18th appearance in the Eurovision Song Contest next year. RTS confirmed its participation earlier this summer. It is unclear whether Serbia will choose their next representative through an internal selection or through a national selection.

Spain

Spanish broadcaster RTVE has confirmed its participation in the 70th Eurovision Song Contest, with Benidorm Fest once again being used to select their representative.

The song submission window for Benidorm Fest 2026 opened on June 5th and will close on September 24th at 23:59 CEST. Full rules for the selection can be found here, and songs can be submitted here.

Once song submissions close in September, a panel will review the entries and select up to twenty to compete in Benidorm Fest 2026. A further six backup entries will be chosen should one of the participants be unable to compete.

Sweden

Sweden’s search for Eurovision 2026 is already underway, with song submissions open for Melodifestivalen 2026. The submission window for Melodifestivalen 2026 opened on August 18 at 09:00 CEST. The window will remain open until 11:59 CEST on September 12. Once the submission window has closed, a professional jury will review all of the submissions and make recommendations to SVT, who will then choose 30 entries to compete in Melodifestivalen 2026.

The competing artists and composers in Melodifestivalen 2026 will be revealed in a press conference in November or December 2026. The winner of Melodifestivalen 2026 will represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Austria.

Switzerland

Switzerland has already closed its song submission window for Eurovision 2026. Now that the submission window is closed, several audition rounds will take place to determine the Swiss entry for Eurovision 2026. In the first round, editors at SRG SSR will review the songs. Any songs that do not meet the quality standard or meet the competition rules will be eliminated from the selection.

Just as last year, a Swiss audience jury, an international audience jury, and an international expert jury will determine the results of each round. The international expert jury will be comprised of 25 people who have previously served as members of their countries’ national juries during Eurovision.

The winning song and act will be chosen by the end of 2025, with the participant to be announced in 2026.

Ukraine

Ukraine will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. This will be the first time that Ukraine will participate in a Eurovision contest in Austria, having missed the 2015 contest due to financial difficulties.

The Ukrainian representative for Vienna will be chosen through Vidbir. Earlier this month, Suspilne held a listening session with fans to discuss how to improve the selection.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom will compete for a 68th time in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2026. The BBC have not yet revealed how they will select their entrant for Eurovision 2026. Since 2020, all British Eurovision entrants have been internally selected.

Who hasn’t announced their plans yet?

The following countries that participated in Eurovision 2025 have not publicly announced whether they intend to participate in the 2026 contest:

• Armenia
• Australia
• 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan
• 🇧🇪 Belgium – RTBF and VRT are currently in discussions with the EBU after raising concerns regarding the current state of the contest. Discussions are underway with the European Broadcasting Union regarding the future of the competition, including on Israel’s participation, promotion of participants by their delegations and associated parties and discuss whether the public vote should continue to allow up to 20 votes to be cast.
• Croatia
• Czechia
• Estonia
• 🇫🇷 France
• Georgia
• Ireland
• 🇮🇹 Italy
• Poland – Has confirmed it will decide by mid-September
• 🇵🇹 Portugal
• 🇸🇲 San Marino – San Marino RTV has raised concerns with the EBU regarding how smaller nations are treated in the competition and raised concerns regarding the voting methods of the juries and of the televoters at home.
• Slovenia – RTVSLO, the Slovenian broadcaster, has sent a letter to the European Broadcasting Union calling for the organisation to take action to address its concerns regarding the competition

Who could return or debut?

The following countries have participated in the past and are yet to confirm whether they will be competing in Vienna:

• Bulgaria – Last participated in 2022
• Hungary – Last participated in 2019
• Moldova – Last participated in 2024
• Monaco – Last participated in 2006
• Morocco – Last participated in 1980
• North Macedonia – Last participated in 2022
• Romania – Last participated in 2023
• Turkey – Last participated in 2012

Kazakhstan is trying to make its debut in Eurovision in 2026. Kemelbek Oishybayev, chairman of the board at Khabar Agency, attended the General Assembly of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in London earlier this summer. Oishybayev reports that Kazakhstan’s participation in the contest was discussed with EBU Director General Noel Curran. Other arguments were also touched as well, like geography, participation in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, and strengthening ties with the European Union. Curran noted that the issue will be brought up at the next EBU meeting.

Moldova withdrew from Eurovision 2025 at the time broadcaster TRM stated it would review the selection criteria and methodology ahead of competing in future editions of the contest, leaving an open door to a return in 2026.

North Macedonia could return if its most successful Junior Eurovision representative has his way. Bobi Andonov, who finished fifth for North Macedonia at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008, has expressed his desire to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. In July, he told Slobden Pecat that he had spoken to MRT about competing in the Eurovision Song Contest.

In Romania, there are hopes that a songwriting camp could help bring the country back to the contest. The Normania Songwriting Camp will be held over 5 days at Casa Vlasia, Snagov, with songwriters, producers, lyricists and artists from Romania, Europe and beyond to take part in the event. The organisers state that participants will co-write and produce songs aimed at selections for Eurovision 2026, “with a special focus on Romania”. The Romanian broadcaster TVR has been invited to attend the camp, but the broadcaster has not yet confirmed its attendance.

The following countries are also eligible to compete but have not done so to date:

• Algeria
• Egypt
• Jordan
• Lebanon
• Tunisia
• Vatican City

Who isn’t competing at Eurovision 2026?

Andorra, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Slovakia have confirmed they will not return to the competition in 2026. In addition, Belarus and Russia remain suspended from the EBU for violating the organisations rules and as a result are ineligible to compete.

Image source: Alma Bengtsson / EBU