Musician and singer Montaigne, a proud member of the queer community and Australia’s 2021 Eurovision representative, is calling for Australia to pull out of the 2026 edition of the songwriting contest.
Montaigne will perform this Sunday 7 Dec at a major Palestine solidarity rally outside SBS headquarters at Federation Square, Melbourne.
Called by Free Palestine Melbourne and Boycott Eurovision Australia, the rally will urge SBS to join broadcasters in Ireland, Slovenia, Spain, and the Netherlands in withdrawing from the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest over Israel’s continued participation.
Montaigne says the fight for queer liberation can’t be separated from the struggle for Palestinian freedom.
“As queer people, we know what it means to fight for dignity, visibility, and safety. Those values mean nothing if we abandon Palestinians living under military terror – or First Nations people here who still face systemic injustice. Our rights are tied together. I’m calling on SBS and all Australian artists to boycott Eurovision for as long as Israel is allowed to participate.” the singer said.
Montaigne was first selected to represent Australia at Eurovision in 2020 but the event was cancelled. She stayed as Australia’s performer the following year but was forced to perform from Australia due to travel restrictions.
Former SBS World News anchor Mary Kostakidis, has also backed the call for SBS to withdraw:
“When an institution like the Eurovision Song Contest purports to champion unity, diversity and equality, yet refuses to sanction one of its participating nations for documented and ongoing atrocities, Australia’s public broadcaster must not be complicit – the choice to stand on the side of international law is clear.
Israel refuses to abide by the Orders of the International Court of Justice with respect to the Occupied Territories and must face the same sanctions as South Africa.” Kostakidis said.
There have been growing calls for Israel to be banned from the competition in recent years, and began to escalate after they last won the competition in 2018 and hosted the following year.
Currently Russia is banned from participating over their invasion of Ukraine, and now a growing number of national broadcasters are pulling out of the 2026 event due to Israel treatment of people in Gaza.
The decision of Spain to pull out of next year’s event is particularly significant because of one of the ‘Big 5’ of the competition they are usually paying a larger chunk of the shows production costs alongside England, France, Germany and Italy.
The 2026 outing of Eurovision is set to take place is Vienna following Austria’s JJ winning the 2025 edition. The 70th Eurovision Song Contest will be at the Wiener Stadthalle, in Vienna, Austria, on Tuesday 12, Thursday 14 and Saturday 16 May 2026.
Austrian broadcaster ORF has told The Guardian that the withdrawals will not effect the event.
“The show will not suffer in any way,” said ORF’s Director General, Roland Weissmann, adding that those pulling out still had until mid-December to change their minds.
“Overall, it would of course be a financial burden if several countries didn’t participate, but we had already taken this into account … and this mainly affects the EBU, which has already factored this into its budget,” Weissmann said. “I don’t see this being a problem in Vienna and even if there is a bit less, we’ll be able to compensate for it.”
