Canada Officially Joins Eurovision Song Contest

C’est officiel: Canada is joining the Eurovision Song Contest.

Last week, the North American country became a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which owns and runs the contest, after they were voted in at the EBU’s general assembly in Prague.

The move makes them eligible to participate in the annual singing competition and today it was confirmed the country intends to take part next year.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney reportedly raised the idea of joining Eurovision in his 2025 budget. It is unknown if Carney, who spent a number of years living in the U.K. when he was governor of the Bank of England, is a Eurovision fan but he is apparently looking to build closer economic and political ties with Europe.

The country more generally is crazy for the contest. Despite not being able to participate in this year’s competition in Vienna, Canada turned out to be one of the most enthusiastic voting blocs, coming in the top 3 countries in the “rest of the world” vote, while Canadians were also among the largest group of ticket-buyers outside of Europe for the semi-final and grand final in Europe.

And despite not being eligible to participate until now, the country has fielded a number of contestants over Eurovision’s seven decades. Most famously Céline Dion won one of the tightest races in Eurovision history — beating out the U.K. by a single point — when she represented Switzerland in 1988.

The first Canadian ever to participate in the contest was Sherisse Laurence, who appeared for Luxembourg two years earlier in 1986 and came in third place.

The country will reveal how it plans to select its first official contestant later this year.

Canada is not the first non-European country to join the contest; Australia and Israel are both regular participants, with the former joining in 2015 and the latter in 1973.

Both came close to winning the top spot this year before losing out to Bulgaria’s entry Dara: Israel’s Noam Bettan finished in second place while Australia’s Delta Goodrem came in fourth. (Italy rounded out the top five with contestant Sal Da Vinci.) Five countries pulled out of last year’s competition in protest at Israel’s participation: Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia.

Eurovision celebrated its 70th anniversary last year having first launched in 1956. The singing contest, which this year reached 131 million people across 35 TV markets, has embarked on a period of expansion over the past few years. Although an American version on NBC failed to take off in 2022, an Asian spin-off set to take place in Thailand in November.

A Broadway show based on Will Ferrell’s 2020 movie “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire” is also in the works.