Music fans who gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday to watch the Eurovision contest decried juries’ snubs of Israel as “obviously political”, AFP reports.

The mood was electric at the packed Layla bar in Tel Aviv as the show got underway, with the crowd going wild when Israel’s contestant Eden Golan appeared on screen.

As votes started ticking in, and it became clear that few of the juries representing the 37 countries with voting rights were offering Golan even a handful of votes, spirits fell. Fans went from jumping around and waving Israeli flags to sitting downcast, some with their heads in their hands.

“This is clearly political,” said Guy, a 20-year-old who declined to give his last name. “Eden was amazing… But there are people who hate us. They don’t see the whole picture,” he told AFP.

“We didn’t get much from the countries. That’s obviously a political thing,” Layla manager Tal Shur agreed.