<p>This paper uses the Eurovision song contest (ESC) to test the impact of cultural diplomacy on international sentiment between countries. The ESC is a hugely-popular televised contest where juries and viewers of one European country vote for multiple performers of other European nations. We use the number of cultural institutes along with foreign tourists, visiting students and cultural goods from the performers’ nation to the judges’ host nation to measure cultural diplomacy. Using a bilateral gravity model, we find that that each measure of cultural diplomacy has a positive impact on the voting points received by the source performer. When separated between jury and televoting, we find that cultural diplomacy has a positive effect on televoting by viewers, but no significant effect on expert jury voting. Our results therefore suggest that intentional cultural diplomacy can improve a country’s positive sentiment in the eyes of other nations.</p>