The director of the Eurovision Song Contest says the door is open for Canada to hitch the favored musical spectacle, but has not yet received a proper request after the federal government said last yr it could “explore participation.”
Martin Green told the BBC on Wednesday that “nothing’s particularly come over my desk” from Canada but acknowledged “we’re an open place” for brand new participants outside of Europe.
“For 70 years, our doors have been open, and we’ll welcome anyone through those doors who desires to share the values of this excellent occasion and stand on our stage with friends,” he said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has been looking for closer ties with Europe because it seeks to diversify from the USA, and the mention of Eurovision in last yr’s federal budget suggested those ties could extend beyond trade and security to culture.
A line within the budget’s section on the CBC says the federal government is “working with CBC/Radio-Canada to explore participation in Eurovision.”
“We all know that Mark Carney desires to type of embrace Europe,” Green said.
Carney has suggested Canada’s participation in Eurovision can be positive for each the country and Europe.
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“We would like Canadian culture on a world stage,” he said shortly after the budget was tabled in November. “Best culture on this planet, best music on this planet. I believe Europe deserves to see it too.”
The 70-year-old song contest is an annual source of camp for an enormous global audience that has sometimes been called Europe’s version of the Super Bowl, with tons of of thousands and thousands of viewers tuning in every year.
Canadian talent has been featured before, including a young Celine Dion, whose performance on behalf of a Switzerland-submitted song won the competition in 1988.
Nevertheless, Canada just isn’t a full member of the European Broadcasting Union, the alliance of public media outlets that runs the show, and subsequently cannot take part in the competition itself.
Canada, through the CBC, is barely an associate member of the EBU, but can join if formally invited. Other non-European nations have done so, including Australia, Cyprus and Israel.
Leon Mar, the senior director of public affairs for CBC/Radio-Canada, told the general public broadcaster on Wednesday that it has been in touch with the EBU and can have a presence at this yr’s contest, which is ready to conclude with Saturday’s finale in Vienna.
“I can confirm that we’ve got three staff attending the ESC as observers and that we’re talking with the EBU about how we will collaborate more closely and exchange more content, namely through the Eurovision News Exchange and the Euroradio Music Exchange,” he said.
Global News has asked Mar for added comment on the CBC’s participation.
Joining Eurovision was previously considered by CBC/Radio-Canada prior to now but was determined to be prohibitively expensive.
The competition is facing controversy this yr attributable to previous winner Israel’s participation, with five countries — Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland — boycotting in protest attributable to Israel’s military actions in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
Israel nevertheless advanced to the ultimate this week alongside nine other countries.
—With files from Global’s Sean Previl
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