The "Curse of 43" is another one of the phenomena to occur at the Eurovision Song Contest. It is called that because when EBU announces the original list of 43 participants at the contest, there must be some incident with one country which leads to its withdrawal and reducing the number of participating countries to 42. This leaves many fans, media people and artists to believe that this number of participating countries is "cursed".
The only years in which Curse of 43 didn't happen were 2008, 2011 and 2018.
List of Withdrawals[]
| Year | Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 |  Georgia
|
Originally selected Stephane & 3G with the song We Don't Wanna Put In, and allocated to participate in the first semi-final. The EBU later rejected this song on grounds of politics in the song and asked GPB to change the lyrics or the song. As GPB refused, this resulted in Georgia's withdrawal from the contest and reducing the number of 42. |
| 2012 |  Armenia
|
Armenia at the last moment confirmed that they will participate in the 2012 contest held in Baku, Azerbaijan, and announced that would select their entry internally, and was allocated to participate in the second semi-final. On 7 March 2012, 11 days before announcing their entrant, the Armenian broadcaster AMPTV announced its withdrawal from the contest due to security concerns and non-existing diplomatic relations with host country Azerbaijan. This resulted in reducing the number of participating countries to 42. |
| 2016 |  Romania
|
Ovidiu Anton was to represent his country with the song Moment of Silence at the 2016 contest and was drawn to perform at number 12 in the second semi-final. However, less than 3 weeks before the contest, it was withdrawn by the EBU due to outstanding financial debts owed by TVR. |
| 2017 |  Russia
|
Yulia Samoilova was to represent her country with the song Flame is Burning at the 2017 contest, and was also drawn to perform at number 3 in the second semi-final. However, the Ukrainian government issued a travel ban against Samoilova as a result of a 2015 performance where she traveled directly to Crimea from Russia. Russian Channel One later refused to broadcast the contest and announced its withdrawal. |