This is an international competition that brings Euphoria your audience and allow its participants Rise like a Phoenix and there is a possibility Eurovision The song competition may soon include Canada in its ranks.
It wasn't an expensive item, but there was a line in the Liberal government's 2025 budget for CBC that said it was working with the public broadcaster to explore the possibility of entering the popular song competition.
Eurovision has existed since 1956 and is organized annually by the European Broadcasting Union. It features artists from around Europe, as well as some overseas, such as Australia.
The campy song competition is sometimes described as Europe's version of the Super Bowl, attracting hundreds of millions of viewers around the world.
“We want to put Canadian culture on the world stage,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday. “The best culture in the world, the best music in the world, I think Europe deserves to see that too.”
Carney is a fan of popular song content.
Canadians have competed in the competition in the past, with Celine Dion winning it for Switzerland in 1988. That same year, Lara Fabian, who became a Canadian citizen in 1995, represented Luxembourg and finished fourth.
La Zarra, born in Montreal, represented France at the 2023 competition and placed 16th with her performance Obviously.
Carney has been outreach to multiple countries in recent months as Canada looks to like-minded trading partners amid its trade war with the United States.
Dean Vuletich, a historian of the Eurovision Song Contest, told Global News that he is not surprised that the Canadian budget has a line item about the competition. He noted that Canada had been discussing joining the competition since Australia joined in 2015.
“Canada is a country that is close to Europe culturally and politically, especially to the countries of the European Union,” Vuletic said. “We are talking about the EU member states, which are the core of Eurovision, and it is with them that Canada seeks to establish closer ties, given the current situation in the world.
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“I think it's also a way for Canada to strengthen its ties with the European Union, even though Eurovision is not officially associated with the European Union… It's a way for Canada to demonstrate that it is closely connected to the European Union, that it shares the values of the European Union.”
Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told Global News that Europe is open to the idea.
“This has been an issue that people who are involved have been asking about, and I think this is a platform for Canada to shine,” Champagne said Tuesday.
CBC/Radio-Canada previously considered participating in Eurovision, but it was decided that it would be prohibitively expensive.
There were plans to launch a televised singing competition in Canada, with the winner going to Eurovision, similar to how other competing countries choose their entrants.
Lindsay Cox, co-chief content officer at Toronto-based Insight Productions, told The Canadian Press that their original plans for an English-only program were scrapped in favor of a “bilingual show.”
After the budget announcement, Cox said there were “ongoing discussions” with the CBC, but did not provide more details.
The big question, according to Eurovision expert Karen Fricker: If Canada takes part in the competition, will there be enough appetite to watch?
“It’s very interesting to watch, but will there be interest in it?” asked Fricker, an associate professor of drama at Brock University in Niagara.
Fricker told Global News that the competition has become very popular among various immigrant and diaspora communities, with some bringing their country's broadcasts into their homes and, in turn, watching the competition.
Additionally, the competition has embraced youth culture during the COVID-19 pandemic, with some in the LGBT community calling it the “gay Olympics”—2024 winner Nemo identifies as non-binary, and JJ, the 2025 winner, identifies as gay.
Fricker noted that Australia's decision could also support Canada.
“It was decided that because Australia, like Canada, is very much a country of immigrants, in addition to having First Nations, they do have a following in Australia,” Fricker said. “So when Australia got the opportunity to compete, it made a lot of sense because the public was so excited. I feel like that's something that needs to be built on here (in Canada).
—with files from Turia Isri of Global News and The Canadian Press
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
