Israel poate câștiga Eurovision în acest an

Daragh Brophy

reporting from Vienna

“WHO WILL WIN the Eurovision?”
It’s the go-to gambit for anyone attending or reporting on the song contest.
But, amid continued controversy over Israel’s presence in the competition, that straightforward question itself comes fraught with tension.
The second semi-final of the world’s biggest live music show played out in front of around 10,000 fans at the Wiener Stadhalle this evening. 
Norway, Australia and Romania were among the countries sealing a spot in the final. Israel and nine other acts – including the favourites this year, Finland – made it through from the Tuesday contest. 
The bookies are currently giving the Finns a 37% chance of topping the table come the weekend, with Greece and Australia next best placed.
For those who keep a close eye on this sort of thing, however, there’s every chance the Israeli singer, Noam Bettan, could emerge victorious from Saturday’s Grand Final, in spite of being rated fifth in the odds table.
Why? 
It’s all down to the voting system that governs how votes are distributed.
Entering a song seen as a ‘safe bet’ – solid, but no risk-taking, something that keeps you in contention after the expert juries have their say – and then relying on the public vote, which makes up the other 50% of the total score, appears to be Israel’s strategy.  
It’s certainly one that’s served them well in recent years. The country topped the popular vote in last year’s contest in Basel, and came second the year before that in Malmö.
Even in countries with a strong pro-Gaza sentiment, Ireland included, Israel ended up with a strong share of available viewer votes across the two contests. 
Broadcasters from five nations – Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland – are boycotting Eurovision this year because of the war on Gaza.  

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What happened last year? 
Several broadcasters who typically send an act to Eurovision, RTÉ among them, expressed concerns about voting patterns in the wake of last year’s final, prompting contest organisers the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to overhaul the system in advance of the Vienna contest. 
Those complaints came about after Israel’s Yuval Raphael, who had finished mid-table after the professional jury votes were distributed, ended up leapfrogging over her competitors when the popular vote was added to her tally. 
Israel remained in contention to win as the remaining results of the night were called out – before eventually being beaten by Austria’s JJ in a split-screen play-off scenario. 

The split-screen finish to last year’s contest. EBU

EBU

It emerged in the wake of the Basel contest that an agency of the Israeli government had deployed social media advertising and used state social media accounts to encourag