Bulgarian pop star DARA captured the 70th Eurovision Song Contest crown in Vienna with her high-energy dance track “Bangaranga,” taking home 516 total points. The historic win played out against a tense geopolitical conflict, as the ongoing Gaza war sparked loud protests outside the arena and a disruptive chant of “Free Palestine” during Tuesday’s semi-final. DARA swept the expert juries with 204 points and dominated the public televoting with 312 points.
After 15 countries initially secured Grand Final spots earlier this week, the competition suffered from severe internal fractures. Five competing nations—Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland, and Slovenia—executed a complete boycott of the event in protest of Israel’s allowed participation. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez publicly defended his country’s withdrawal on X, stating Spain was on the “right side of history,” a detail verified by a report covering the drop to 35 entries. This mass walkout left the competition with its smallest field since 2003.
Israel’s entrant Noam Bettan pushed through the intense international scrutiny to finish in second place. The exact final scores were confirmed by a breakdown of the final standings noting Romania finished third with 296 points, Israel second with 343 points, and Italy fifth. Meanwhile, the UK entry, “Look Mum No Computer,” suffered a crushing defeat, landing at the absolute bottom of the leaderboard with just a single point.
The 2026 results established a completely new precedent for the winning nation. DARA’s 516-point sweep, topping both jury and public votes for Bulgaria’s first win, marks the first time since Portugal in 2017 that a single country won both voting blocs outright.