Geopolitics have long intruded on the Eurovision Song Contest. But they were not really a factor as the event prepared to expand into Asia for the first time.
That was still true as of Saturday evening, as the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest Asia was about to start in Bangkok.
Over the decades, Eurovision organizers have insisted that the contest is nonpolitical. Its organizers impose rules governing lyrics, political symbols and what can be broadcast. Even so, wars and diplomatic disputes have shaped who gets to sing, who stays home and what broadcasters are willing to air.
“Politics is why we watch Eurovision,” said Dean Vuletic, a historian of the show at the University of Luxembourg.
Here are some examples of geopolitics bleeding into the European edition of the contest:
In 2009, less than a year after fighting a war with Russia, the former Soviet republic of Georgia planned to send a disco song called “We Don’t Wanna Put In” to Eurovision. Eurovision’s organizers said that the apparent dig at Vladimir Putin, then Russia’s prime minister, had to go. Georgia pulled out instead of changing it.
In 2017, Russia pulled out of the contest in Kyiv after Ukraine barred its singer from entering the country. And five years later, after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Eurovision barred Russia altogether.
In 2024, the war in Gaza triggered mass protests over Israel’s participation. A bitter dispute over government influence on voting followed in 2025, and there were boycotts of the contest by five countries in 2026, the biggest crisis in Eurovision’s 70-year history.
The 11 Asian countries that sent artists to Saturday’s show have plenty of offstage geopolitical friction.
Cambodia, for example, is set to sing in Thailand’s capital less than a year after a border war between the two neighbors killed dozens and displaced hundreds of thousands. As fighting picked up last year, Cambodia withdrew its athletes from the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, citing safety concerns.
But none of that has translated into a Eurovision controversy.
Mr. Vuletic said he expects Eurovision Asia to become a more visible platform for politics if the event continues over the next few years, drawing a wider audience and raising the stakes for countries taking part.
For now, some of Asia’s biggest powers are conspicuously absent from the lineup. Broadcasters from China, Japan and India discussed participating but did not sign up before the entry deadline, said Assaf Blecher, the contest’s executive producer. Pakistan and Indonesia are also absent.
China’s relations with Japan have been strained by a diplomatic dispute over Taiwan, which spilled into pop culture last year when Beijing canceled Japanese concerts and restricted films. China also has overlapping maritime claims in the South China Sea with the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia — countries that are all competing on Saturday.
Taiwan’s absence spares the organizers potentially sensitive decisions about names and flags. Beijing claims the self-governing island as its territory and opposes its treatment as an independent country. Such symbols have proved contentious at Eurovision, which in 2024 barred its audience from carrying Palestinian flags while permitting those of participating countries, including Israel.
Eurovision’s organizers have said the competition is “not a contest between governments.” But maintaining that distinction involves decisions about both what performers can sing and what broadcasters air.
The European contest’s rules prohibit political lyrics, speeches and gestures, and entrants may be asked to submit new songs or rewrite offending words. In 2024, organizers required Israel to change the title and lyrics of “October Rain,” which appeared to reference the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks. The song became “Hurricane.”
For all the trouble it can bring, the breadth of representation has also been part of Eurovision’s appeal since its founding in 1956, as an experiment in international television and an effort to bring Cold War Europe together. Bosnia and Herzegovina debuted in 1993 while Sarajevo, its capital, was under siege. Its singer, Fazla, told The New York Times in 2022 that he had escaped barefoot under sniper fire after his shoes became stuck in the mud.
“Eurovision is about representing your nation,” he said, “about giving yourself a platform to bring your story into the living rooms of normal people.”
Eurovision is not the only song contest to offer that platform. Russia revived the Cold War-era Intervision contest in 2025, after its exclusion from Eurovision over the invasion of Ukraine. It promoted the new competition as a showcase for what the Kremlin calls “traditional values.”
Vietnam’s Duc Phuc won that contest in Moscow.
On Saturday in Bangkok, another Vietnamese pop star, Toc Tien, will be first onstage at Eurovision Asia.