So, the European Broadcasting Union just announced that Canada will be debuting at the Eurovision Song Contest next year. I’m more than happy for Canada to join – the more the merrier, and I do enjoy me some Canadian music (Spiritbox is one of my favourite metal bands, and I’ve grown up listening to a lot of deadmau5). Canada has some history with Eurovision in terms of contestants, most notably when Celine Dion won for Switzerland. I’ve seen some British male pundit types on Bluesky talking about how this is such a farce and that Eurovision has gone down the shitter, showing how ignorant they really are. Canada has participated in Eurovision Young Dancers in the 80s, the EBU has had precedent for this for a long time. CBC has also been involved in other Eurovision projects such as Eurovision News Spotlight.

However, even if the criteria for being a full EBU member has been changed (to allow broadcasters in observer nations of the Council of Europe to become full members¹), Canada hasn’t really been airing Eurovision that much, if they even have at all, so it doesn’t make sense like when Australia was invited. SBS had been airing the contest for decades up until that point, so the connection there makes sense. Though, I’ve heard that despite that, Eurovision is still quite “niche” and is more favoured by the music scenes rather than the audience.

That’s why this feels like desperation mostly on the EBU’s part in my opinion, but also a bit on Canada’s, too. Canada, I can understand – the U.S. has proven to be unreliable and so there’s a legitimate reason to strengthen ties with European nations, and being on Eurovision is probably a sure-fire and blatantly obvious way to go about that. However, it’s worth pointing out that the contest has been bleeding, particularly in terms of audience even in participating nations that boast high viewership (2026’s viewership has gone down in the UK, one of the biggest audiences for Eurovision), due to the boycotts imposed over their handling of Israel and the war in Gaza. Having a pretty wealthy broadcaster on board would ease the boycotts, and maybe partly fill the hole left from Spain and the Netherlands in particular. It also proves, in a way that’s not the casual racism towards Eastern Europe that British people tend to spout in this context, that Eurovision is political, despite the EBU trying to state the contrary – this wasn’t done by CBC alone, this was done by the Canadian government, who controls CBC. In 2025 when Carney became Prime Minister, he set aside a part of the federal budget to explore participation in Eurovision. It is blatantly political.

Will I watch Canada’s debut? Probably not, 2026 was so shit, it may have actually killed a huge part of my Eurovision hyperfixation and I don’t feel that hyped for 2027 despite the fact it’s finally gotten a first-time winner after how long. That hyperfixation is still there, in a way, though, and whoever represents Canada, I may take a listen.

1. This also means that public broadcasters in the US, Mexico, and Japan can also participate in the main Eurovision Song Contest by becoming a full member, as they are also CoE observer states. Though talks are underway with regards to Japan potentially taking part in Eurovision Asia. I’ve heard if a broadcaster is participating in Eurovision Asia they cannot compete in the main contest, but I’m not sure if that’s based on country or by individual broadcasters. ↩︎