Lebanon in the Eurovision Song Contest

Lebanon and the Eurovision Song Contest

Lebanon has never participated in the Eurovision Song Contest. The country's broadcasting organisation, Télé Liban, was set to make the country's debut at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Quand tout s'enfuit" performed by Aline Lahoud, but withdrew due to Lebanese laws barring the broadcast of Israeli content.

On 21 October 2004, Ibrahim El Khoury, President Director General of Télé Liban, stated that Lebanon intended to make its debut at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in Kyiv, Ukraine. On 3 November 2004, it was announced that Aline Lahoud was internally selected by the network to represent Lebanon. Her orient occident song "Quand tout s'enfuit", sung in French and written by Jad Rahbani and Romeo Lahoud, was chosen in mid February. Lahoud was scheduled to present her song in the semi final held on 19 May 2005. On 15 December 2004, Télé Liban announced that financial constraints forced them to withdraw from the contest, and denied reports that it was due to political conflicts with Israel. However, five days later, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) reached an agreement with Télé Liban and Lebanon was put on the official list of participants. In early March 2005, the official Lebanese Eurovision Song Contest website did not list Israel as a participant. After the EBU asked Télé Liban to resolve the issue within 24 hours or face disqualification, the site removed the complete list of participants and replaced the page with a link to Eurovision. tv, the official Eurovision website. Later that month, the EBU asked Télé Liban to assure that they would broadcast the entire contest, including the Israeli entry, without interruption. Télé Liban could not guarantee that request, so on 18 March 2005, it once again announced its withdrawal from the contest. Télé Liban wrote on its website that it "is not permitted to broadcast the performance of the Israeli participant, thereby breaching the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005" and forcing its withdrawal. Since Télé Liban withdrew almost three months after the 15 December "no consequence" withdrawal deadline, the broadcaster was penalised, losing its participation fee and was served with a three year ban.

With the three year ban, Télé Liban was not eligible to re enter the Eurovision Song Contest until 2009.