I guarantee you that the winning song will play on repeat over and over again in every city in Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland irrespective of if they are competing, and people will still watch the circus from those countries. The whole "well we are not competing this year as a protest" is part of the joke.

That is the whole point. If you want to understand more, this song is genuinely a good explanation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv6tgnx6jTQ

And I'm not even joking.