分类： entertainment

The 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, hosted this year in Vienna, Austria, has already delivered dramatic twists, political tension, and standout musical performances, as 10 acts locked in their spots for Saturday’s grand final during the first semi-final held Tuesday.

Against a backdrop of years-long controversy tied to Israel’s military operations in Gaza that has roiled the competition, 28-year-old Israeli contestant Noam Bettan secured his place in the final with his tender, romance-driven pop track *Michelle*. The controversy over Israel’s participation has been particularly sharp this year: five nations have already announced a full boycott of the 2026 event, including seven-time Eurovision champion Ireland.

Bettan’s semi-final appearance was met with a deeply divided reaction from the arena audience. While some attendees booed and shouted anti-Israeli slogans, other supporters chanted the singer’s name in solidarity. Ahead of his performance, Bettan told the *Jerusalem Post* he intended to stay focused on his craft, dismissing all political criticism as nothing more than irrelevant “background noise.” Host broadcaster ORF had previously confirmed it would not censor audience protests or negative reactions toward any contestant, a policy that meant the boos were clearly audible for viewers watching the live broadcast.

In a joint statement released after the semi-final, ORF and contest organizers the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) detailed the disruptions: several protesters positioned themselves near on-stage microphones to amplify their anti-Israel messages, both as Bettan prepared to perform and during his song. “They were later removed by security for continuing to disturb the audience,” the statement read, adding that three additional protesters were also ejected from the Wiener Stadhalle arena for continued disruptive behavior. After his qualification was announced, Bettan publicly thanked the audience that supported his advancement.

This year’s semi-final also marked a historic milestone for Eurovision, opening with a heartfelt 70th-anniversary tribute short film. The film followed Toni, a young Austrian boy who developed a lifelong love for the contest as he grew up, watching the competition through decades of shifting cultural trends and evolving personal relationships. The film featured cameos from some of Eurovision’s most iconic winners, including Abba, Sandie Shaw, Conchita Wurst, and 2024 champion Nemo, and closed with adult Toni taking the stage to perform *L’amour Est Bleu*, the classic 1967 entry from Vicky Leandros — the first year Austria hosted the contest. Leandros herself then joined Toni on stage, accompanied by a 70-voice choir, for a moving opening to the night of competition.

Once the tribute concluded, the 16 competing acts took the stage in sequence. Moldovan contender Satoshi opened the competitive portion of the night with high-energy party anthem *Viva, Moldova!*, making a memorable entrance in a football shirt printed with 373 — the country’s international dialing code. Next up was Sweden’s Felicia, who performed her infectious dance track *My System* — a playful metaphor for falling in love framed as a fatal infection — while performing behind an artful face mask. Croatian all-female folk outfit Lelek shifted the tone with *Andromeda*, a harmonically rich track exploring the history of gender suppression during the Ottoman Empire. Greek contestant Akylas delivered one of the night’s most elaborate staging concepts for his track *Ferto*, weaving in references to ancient Greek sculpture, traditional knitting culture, and 2005 Eurovision winner Helena Paparizou, Greece’s only champion to date. The track draws sharp contrasts between the materialistic culture of today’s social media generation and the severe hardship Greek families endured during the 2009–2018 Greek financial crisis.

The current bookmakers’ favorite to take home the 2026 Eurovision trophy is Finnish duo Pete Parkonnen and Linda Lampenius, whose fiery, emotional love song *Liekinheitin* (Flamethrower) delivered a showstopping performance Tuesday. The pair made Eurovision history during their set: Lampenius, a world-class classical violinist, received special permission to perform with a rare 19th-century Gagliano violin, marking just the second time a live acoustic instrument has been allowed on the Eurovision stage since a rule change in 1998. The performance was so intense that Lampenius actually snapped the bow hair on her violin mid-set, adding an unplanned moment of drama.

Other standout moments of the semi-final included Italy’s Sal Da Vinci’s lush disco tribute to his wife on *Per Sempre Si*, and Lithuanian contestant Lion Ceccah’s visually striking performance of man-vs-machine anthem *Sólo quiero más*, which saw Ceccah cover his entire body in metallic silver paint. Closing out the competitive performances was Serbia’s all-female metal band Lavina, who brought a dark, hard-edged energy to the semi-final with their track *Kraj Mene*, a far cry from the electro-pop that dominated most of the night’s line-up.

In a surprise twist, former Culture Club frontman and British music icon Boy George failed to qualify for the final, after appearing as a guest performer on San Marino’s entry. San Marino was among the five countries eliminated from the first semi-final, alongside Estonia, Georgia, Montenegro, and Portugal. The elimination stung for some fans, as it cut short the return of three veteran Eurovision acts: Estonia’s fan-favorite Vanilla Ninja, San Marino’s long-time contestant Senhit, and Georgia’s Bzikebi, the 2008 Junior Eurovision champions.

Along with Bettan and the Finnish duo, the 10 acts advancing to Saturday’s grand final are: Belgium’s Essyla with *Dancing on the Ice*, Croatia’s Lelek with *Andromeda*, Greece’s Akylas with *Ferto*, Lithuania’s Lion Ceccah with *Sólo quiero más*, Moldova’s Satoshi with *Viva, Moldova!*, Poland’s Alicja with *Pray*, Serbia’s Lavina with *Kraj Mene*, and Sweden’s Felicia with *My System*.

Tuesday’s vote count was conducted under new competition rules, implemented after widespread allegations of voting irregularities during the 2025 contest. The overhauled system caps public votes at 10 per voter, down from 20 in previous years, and requires voters to enter credit card details to cast votes online. Organizers say the credit card requirement will verify that votes originate from the country they are submitted from, cutting down on cross-border voting fraud. While votes were counted, audiences were treated to an acrobatic performance honoring Vienna’s Wurstelprater, one of the oldest operating amusement parks in the world, plus a surprise cameo from Eurovision superfan and Hollywood star Will Ferrell, and a novelty comedy number leaning into the running joke between Austria and Australia, centered mostly on playful gags about kangaroos.

The second semi-final is set to take place on Thursday, where high-profile contenders from Denmark and France will make their first 2026 contest appearances. The night will also mark the highly anticipated debut of Australian pop superstar Delta Goodrem, one of the biggest names on this year’s line-up, alongside the United Kingdom’s entry, from experimental artist Look Mum No Computer.

The iconic red carpet is unfurled along the French Riviera, as the 79th Cannes Film Festival opens its 12-day run of global cinematic premieres on Tuesday. The annual gathering, one of the most prestigious events on the international film industry calendar, will conclude on May 25 with the awarding of the Palme d’Or, the festival’s highest honor that carries global acclaim and major awards season momentum.

The festival’s opening night sets a celebratory tone: kicking off proceedings is the French period comedy *The Electric State*, while legendary *Lord of the Rings* director Peter Jackson will accept an honorary Palme d’Or in recognition of his decades-long career in filmmaking. This year, however, one topic has dominated pre-festival buzz as much as the packed lineup of new films: the near-total absence of major Hollywood studio productions.

In previous years, big-budget blockbusters such as *Top Gun: Maverick* and *Elvis* made their world debut on the Croisette, drawing massive crowds and global media attention. But for 2025, no major studio tentpoles are on the official lineup. Industry insiders point to two key factors keeping big studio projects away: the risk of a critical or audience backlash in the high-stakes Cannes environment, and the exorbitant cost of flying A-list talent to the Cote d’Azur for the festival’s signature red carpet and press events. The only nod to big-budget Hollywood franchise fare this year is a special anniversary celebration for the *Fast & Furious* film series.

Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux addressed the gap in his press briefing on the eve of the festival, noting that Hollywood is currently in a period of massive industry upheaval, sparked most recently by Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. “I hope the studio films will come back,” Frémaux told reporters.

Despite the missing studio blockbusters, the festival has not lost its draw for top cinematic talent. A roster of the world’s most acclaimed filmmakers are slated to premiere new works in the official competition, including Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar with *Bitter Christmas*, American filmmaker James Gray’s *Paper Tiger*, South Korean director Na Hong-jin’s *Hope*, Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski’s *Fatherland*, and Japanese Academy Award winner Ryusuke Hamaguchi with *All of a Sudden*.

While Cannes has faded as a go-to global launchpad for major studio releases in recent years, it has cemented its reputation as the most reliable launching pad for Academy Award contenders. Two years ago, Sean Baker’s *Anora* took home the Palme d’Or at Cannes before going on to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Last year, multiple Cannes selections, including *Sentimental Value*, *The Secret Agent*, and *It Was Just an Accident*, went on to become major players throughout Hollywood’s awards season.

Leading the charge in the Cannes-to-Oscars pipeline this year is independent distributor Neon, which has backed the past six consecutive Palme d’Or winners — an unprecedented streak in festival history. The distributor is attached to more than a quarter of the 22 films competing for this year’s top prize, putting it in a strong position to extend its winning run.

The nine-member jury tasked with selecting this year’s award winners will hold its official press conference Tuesday, ahead of beginning its sequestered schedule of screenings. Award-winning South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook serves as jury president this year, joined by high-profile panelists including actress Demi Moore, Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao, and actor Stellan Skarsgård, among others.

Adding an extra layer of pop culture excitement to this year’s festival is the ongoing production of HBO’s hit series *The White Lotus*. The show’s fourth season, which is set around a trip to the Cannes festival, has been filming on location along the French Riviera over the past month, and its cast and crew are expected to make appearances throughout the event.

Even without major Hollywood studio films, the festival will not be short on star power. Over the next two weeks, dozens of A-list celebrities are scheduled to appear, including Kristen Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Adam Driver, Javier Bardem, Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Rami Malek, Sebastian Stan, Sandra Hüller, and many more.

As the curtains rise on the 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna starting Tuesday, the iconic over-the-top European pop music celebration finds itself overshadowed by deep political division, centered on the debate over Israel’s inclusion in this year’s competition.

For a week leading up to the first semifinal, the Austrian capital has been decked in the contest’s signature branding, with heart motifs lining city streets and banners bearing this year’s official motto, “United by Music.” Thirty-five national acts have gathered to compete for the coveted continental musical crown, but five countries — Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland — have already pulled out in a coordinated boycott of Israel’s participation.

Tensions are running high in Vienna, where multiple pro-Palestinian demonstrations are scheduled throughout the contest week, prompting a massive security deployment. Austrian law enforcement from across the country have been reassigned to the capital, with additional operational support from neighboring German police forces. The heightened security posture also comes in the wake of a recent terror plot revelation: just last month, a 21-year-old Austrian man pled guilty to plotting an attack on a 2024 Taylor Swift concert in Vienna after pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group. Sylvia Mayer, head of Austria’s domestic intelligence service DSN, warned that the current terror threat level remains elevated, with risks posed both by Islamist extremist networks and groups affiliated with Iran.

Israeli representative Noam Bettan is among the 15 acts set to take the stage at the Wiener Stadthalle arena for Tuesday’s first semifinal, where he will perform his ballad “Michelle” to compete for a spot in Saturday’s grand final. Bettan is aiming to secure Israel a second consecutive final berth after the country took second place in last year’s contest. Like 2024 Israeli competitor Yuval Raphael, Bettan has already prepared for potential hostile reception, training to continue his performance even if audiences boo him. The top 10 vote-getters from Tuesday’s semifinal will advance to the final, joining the 10 qualifiers from Thursday’s second semifinal. Automatic final spots are reserved for the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy — the contest’s largest financial backers — as well as 2024 winner Austria, which qualifies automatically as this year’s host.

Heading into the competition, Finland is the clear bookmakers’ favorite to take the crown, with high-energy entry “Liekinheitin” (“Flamethrower”) performed by violinist Linda Lampenius and pop vocalist Pete Parkkonen. Other notable acts in Tuesday’s semifinal include Greek contender Akylas with fan-favorite party rap track “Ferto” (“Bring It”), Portuguese vocal group Bandidos do Cante with the soulful ballad “Rosa,” and San Marino representative Senhit’s upbeat party anthem “Superstar,” which features a surprise guest spot from Culture Club icon Boy George.

Long known as a space for playful, and occasionally sharp, national rivalries, Eurovision has increasingly struggled to insulate itself from geopolitics in recent years. In 2022, Russia was expelled from the competition immediately following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The 2024 contest in Malmo, Sweden, and last year’s event in Basel, Switzerland, both saw large pro-Palestinian protests calling for Israel’s expulsion over its military campaign in Gaza against Hamas, alongside allegations of rule-breaking coordinated marketing efforts to secure votes for Israeli contestants.

After the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the governing body of Eurovision, rejected demands to remove Israel from this year’s lineup, the five boycotting nations announced their non-participation last December. In response to widespread vote-rigging allegations from past contests, the EBU has implemented stricter voting rules for this year’s event, cutting the maximum number of votes per person in half to 10 and adding new safeguards to detect and block “suspicious or coordinated voting activity.”

Despite the ongoing controversy and public divisions, Eurovision historian Dean Vuletic, author of *Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest*, says he is confident the long-running competition will navigate this latest challenge, just as it has overcome countless past crises. “We’ll see demonstrations, but we’ll also see a lot of colorful events going on which will really represent what Eurovision is about, which is bringing Europeans together,” Vuletic explained. “If you look at the history of Eurovision, it’s gone through so many crises, so many political challenges, so many geopolitical changes in Europe, and it’s always managed to survive.”

Against the persistent backdrop of air-raid sirens and the constant threat of missile strikes, Ukraine’s capital Kyiv has played host to a landmark contemporary art fair that carries a profound, quiet mission: to help a war-battered nation process the unthinkable new normal that full-scale conflict has imposed on daily life. Organized by the long-running cultural platform Art Kyiv, the exhibition, titled *This is Normal*, opened at the city’s Lavra Gallery this cycle, marking only the second time the event has been held since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022, following an inaugural launch last October.

Anna Avetova, director of Art Kyiv, explains that the decision to hold the fair amid active conflict was not an oversight, but a deliberate ideological choice. “Holding the event during wartime means not waiting for a better moment, but working with reality as it is,” Avetova says. Unlike many cultural initiatives in Ukraine that center overt narratives of war, *This is Normal* makes a purposeful choice: no exhibition booth is dedicated exclusively to conflict. The war permeates every conversation and every unspoken moment in the gallery, Avetova notes, but curators intentionally rejected the urge to force the topic to the forefront. Instead, the fair positions art as a unifying thread that binds everyday life to cultural memory, rather than a separate compartment separated from the national crisis. “In this context, art does not stand apart from life — it helps make sense of the present, preserve cultural continuity, and lay the groundwork for the future,” Avetova adds. “Art is one of the things that keeps us human. It sustains us and warms our soul when things are very hard.”

Hundreds of works fill the gallery space, spanning an extraordinary range of mediums and styles: from abstract ceramic sculpture and textured mixed-media installations to expressive abstract canvases, surreal portraits, and atmospheric landscape paintings. All works on display are primarily available for purchase, part of a secondary yet critical goal of the fair: to revitalize Ukraine’s stagnant domestic art market. The sector already ground to a near-halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the full-scale invasion delivered a far more devastating blow, shuttering galleries, displacing artists, and drying up collector demand. Today, as the market begins to stir back to slow life, the fair stands as proof that Ukrainian creators are ready not only to create for reflection, but to participate in the global and domestic art economy once more.

The fair has drawn together dozens of Ukraine’s most prominent galleries, leading artists, local collectors, and leading cultural institutions, all gathering in a space where air-raid sirens occasionally cut through artist talks and gallery walks. For many participating creators, the opportunity to exhibit in Kyiv right now carries personal as well as national meaning.

Ceramic artist Tala Vovk is showing her work at a major Kyiv fair for the first time. She makes a point of attending every cultural event she can in the capital, explaining that these gatherings offer a vital chance to step away from the constant stress of war and detach from the pervasive grief surrounding the conflict. “Art is a place where the everyday doesn’t exist,” Vovk says. She argues that sustaining cultural activity through wartime is not a trivial distraction, but an investment in Ukraine’s long-term future. Nourishing the country’s cultural foundation now, she explains, gives it space to take root and grow stronger once the war ends, and that strength will sustain the nation through every challenge ahead.

For artist Yuriy Vatkin, whose work is featured at the fair, art has already served as a lifeline through the darkest days of the invasion. When the full-scale war began, Vatkin found himself trapped under Russian occupation in the corridor between Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and the Russian border. Even after an attack damaged his studio, painting remained a tool to survive and protect his mental health, according to his representative Denys Dmytriev. True to the fair’s ethos, Vatkin’s displayed works avoid explicit war imagery. Instead, they lean into his signature style: thick, layered brushstrokes, fragmented forms, and vivid, unexpected color palettes that evoke a quiet sense of motion and instability that resonates with the current moment.

Visitors echo the artists’ belief that continuing cultural life amid war is a radical act of resilience. Anna Domashchenko, a first-time attendee, says she was drawn to Vatkin’s rich, saturated hues, which stir intense, vital emotions that feel missing from daily life under war. She attends as many art events as possible in Kyiv, and says she often hears questions about whether such events are appropriate amid ongoing death and destruction. For her, the answer is clear. “Sometimes you wonder whether it’s appropriate… but these are exactly the things that inspire you and remind you that life is full of color, and all of those colors should be present at any time,” Domashchenko says. “Even in times as hard as these.”