Eurovision Warns Israel's KAN Over Vote Videos

Organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest issued a formal warning to Israel's participating broadcaster KAN on Friday after promotional videos featuring the country's entrant encouraged viewers to cast all 10 of their available public votes for Israel. The videos surfaced on social media platforms ahead of the contest's opening semifinal in Vienna, Austria, on Tuesday.

Eurovision Song Contest director Martin Green stated that the clips, produced by artist Noam Bettan and released in multiple languages including English, French, German, Spanish and Ukrainian, violated the competition's promotion rules and its spirit. "We were made aware that videos instructing viewers to 'vote 10 times for Israel' had been published and distributed by the artist representing KAN," Green said. "Within 20 minutes, we had contacted the KAN delegation to ask them to immediately stop any distribution of the videos and remove them from any platforms where they had been published. They immediately acted to do this."

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which oversees the event, clarified that public voting allows up to 10 votes per payment method, with professional juries accounting for the other half...