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One step further and … with ticket news, postcard news and lots of other stuff filling ‘Eurofan’ inboxes this week, there’s every chance you’ve not had time to sweat the small stuff. So here’s a quick roundup of smaller stories….
To be honest, dear reader, there isn’t enough stuff to get the juices flowing for a major article. The “Evil Empire” has changed the web address of the official organ, finally, from eurovision.tv to eurovision.com , so yeah, that’s a thing and you are encouraged to register for tickets which will go on sale “In January”. There’s more about that here.
Junior Eurovision has had a dodgy week this week with Georgian broadcaster GPB downsizing the venue just THREE WEEKS ahead of the show. Because of some nonsense about not being convinced the roof is strong enough to hold the kit and Kaboodle, the Junior Show is decamping from the 3700-capacity Olympic Palace, to the much, much smaller Gymnastics Palace – room for just under 1400. Not that there’s any news about how to get tickets yet, suggesting they’re planning to fill this bijou box with school kids from the local oblasts.
Latvian LSM has released details of the 24 artists and song titles taking part in Supernova 2026. Although the plan is to release the competing entries on 4 December, they’re sneaking out under their own steam. Check your nearest socials.
Over in Croatia they have received a record-breaking number of national final entries, 251, which is up thirty from last year. Hooray. And song submissions have closed in Poland.
Carlo Conti will announce the artists competing in the Italian Sanremo 2026 on Sunday, 30 November at 13:30 CET on Rai 1. The festival will feature 30 entries, and that’s four more than initially planned.
Ukraine has revealed its rather restrained fifteen artist Vidbir long list. A few names from the Eurovision firmament make an appearance. Jerry Heil, no intro necessary. Monokate, the solo project of Go_A soloist Kateryna Pavlenko (2021), as well as former Vidbir runners-up MOLODI (2025) and KHAYAT (2020). And Olena Usenko … I believe she did Junior Eurovision in the recent past
Albania has had its usual pre-contest shake up Egzon Pireci withdrawing for “personal reasons” to be replaced by Lynx. I’m not sure if it’s the recently retired Africa or Cool Ice but we await further news on that. We should have been let loose on the songs a few days back, but that never happened. Instead, a holding statement was issued by the organisers: “We know you’re looking forward to the release of the Fest 64 songs, so we’re working with the authors to have them ready for you as soon as possible […] release date and time coming very soon”.
In the ‘pram toy chucking’ corner, Icelandic RÚV’s board of directors has recommended to the EBU that Israel should not take part. This comes after a meeting of the board of directors where five of the nine voted to ruffle Swiss feathers.
In Slovenia, pass-agg vibes a-plenty came from RTVSLO which left any mention of Eurovision out of its 2026 draft production plan. On Thursday, President of the RTVSLO board Natalija Gorščak clarified that Slovenia would only enter a song for the 70th Eurovision Song Contest if Israel doesn’t.
Spain – as reported here – is sticking to its guns and seems determined to force a vote on the issue next week.
The Dutch and the Irish are taking a far less risky path and refusing to be drawn on matters ahead of time, with RTE stating, “Clearly events in the Middle East are unfolding day by day. As previously confirmed by the EBU, the issue of participation in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest has been included on the agenda of the EBU Executive Board’s ordinary Winter General Assembly, which will take place in December.”
