It’s the international competition that brings Euphoria to its audience and let its participants Rise Like a Phoenix, and there’s the likelihood the Eurovision Song Contest could soon include Canada in its ranks.
It wasn’t a big-ticket item, however the Liberal government’s 2025 budget included a line on the CBC that said it’s working with the general public broadcaster to explore participation in the favored song contest.
Eurovision has been around since 1956 and is organized annually by the European Broadcasting Union. It features acts from multiple countries in Europe, but additionally a couple of from abroad, equivalent to Australia.
The campy-style song contest has sometimes been called Europe’s version of the Super Bowl, with lots of of thousands and thousands of viewers globally.
“We wish Canadian culture on a world stage,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday. “Best culture on this planet, best music on this planet, I believe Europe deserves to see it too.”
Carney is a fan of the favored song content.
Canadians have competed in the competition prior to now, with Celine Dion winning it for Switzerland in 1988. That very same 12 months, Lara Fabian, who became a Canadian citizen in 1995, represented Luxembourg and got here in fourth place.
La Zarra, who was born in Montreal, represented France within the 2023 contest and got here in sixteenth along with her performance of Evidemment.
Carney has been doing outreach to quite a few countries in recent months as Canada looks to like-minded trading partners amid the trade war with the U.S.
Dean Vuletic, a historian of the Eurovision Song Contest, told Global News he was not surprised that Canadian budget included a line in regards to the competition. He noted that joining the competition has been something discussed by Canada since Australia joined in 2015.
“Canada is a rustic that’s near Europe, culturally, politically, especially the countries of the European Union,” Vuletic said. “We’re talking in regards to the EU member states that are the core of Eurovision they usually’re those that Canada is trying to develop closer ties with considering the present situation on this planet.
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“I believe this can also be a way for Canada to strengthen its reference to the European Union, regardless that Eurovision isn’t officially connected to the European Union … It is a way for Canada to exhibit that it’s closely tied with the European Union, that it shares the values of the European Union.”
Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told Global News Europe is open to the concept.
“This was something that was asked by the individuals who participate and I believe it’s a platform for Canada to shine,” Champagne said Tuesday.
Joining Eurovision was previously considered by CBC/Radio-Canada prior to now but was determined to be prohibitively expensive.
There have been plans to launch a televised singing contest in Canada that might send the winner to Eurovision, much like how other contest countries select their entry.
Lindsay Cox, co-chief content officer at Insight Productions in Toronto, told The Canadian Press that their original plans for an English-only program were scrapped in favour of a “bilingual-hosted show.”
For the reason that budget announcement, Cox said “ongoing conversations” have been happening with the CBC, but didn’t provide more detail.
The large query, in keeping with Eurovision expert Karen Fricker – if Canada gets in the competition – is there enough appetite to observe?
“It’s super fun to observe, but would there be interest in it?” wondered Fricker, an adjunct professor of dramatic arts at Brock University in Niagara.
Fricker told Global News the competition has turn into highly popular for various immigrant and diasporic communities, with some bringing their very own nation’s broadcasts into their home and, in turn, watching the competition.
As well as, youth culture got into the competition through the COVID-19 pandemic, while some within the LGBTQ2S community have called it the “gay Olympics” — the winner of the 2024 contest, Nemo, identifies as non-binary while JJ, the 2025 winner, identifies as queer.
Fricker noted that Australia’s decision may lend to Canada’s as well.
“The choice was made that because Australia may be very much a rustic of immigrants, as is Canada, along with have First Peoples, they’ve really, really built a following in Australia,” Fricker said. “In order that when Australia then got the chance to compete, it made a lot sense because there was a lot excitement in the general public. Here (in Canada,) that might should be built, I feel.”
—with files from Global News’ Touria Izri and The Canadian Press
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