‘Good evening Europe, this is Toronto calling!’ Will we get to hear this at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna next year? Will Canada debut at Eurovision next year? The Canadian government seems to be keen for Canada to compete at the Eurovision Song Contest.
The Canadian federal government has included the Eurovision Song Contest in its upcoming budget: Canada will explore participating in the popular Eurovision song contest.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney would like to see Canada to compete at the Eurovision Song Contest.The Canadian government has released the Federal Budget for 2025
The Canadian Federal Budget for 2025’s page 182 reads:
Budget 2025 proposes to provide $150 million in 2025–26 for CBC/Radio-Canada to strengthen its mandate to serve the public and to better reflect the needs of Canadians. The government will explore modernising CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate to strengthen independence, and is working with CBC/Radio-Canada to explore participation in Eurovision.
Next year marks the 70th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest. Australia was invited to compete at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015 to mark the 60th anniversary of the contest in Vienna as a one off participation, but such was the enthuasiasm of the country that it has been invited to compete every year since then.
Will the EBU extend an invite to our Canadian friends come 2026? We will have to wait and see….
CBC an Associate EBU Member
CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, joined the EBU in 1950. The Canadian national broadcaster, CBC, is an associate member of the EBU and thus will require an invite by the EBU in order to compete at the Eurovision Song Contest as is the case of our friends down under.
Canada’s Eurovision connection
Many Canadians have competed at the Eurovision Song Contest in the past, but representing other countries, notably the most famous act has been Celine Dion who represented Switzerland at the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin with her epic entry ‘Ne partez pas sans moi‘ and went on to win the contest.
Canadian singers at the ESC:
- Celine Dion ( Switzerland 1988)
- Natasha St. Pier (France 2001)
- Annie Cotton ( Switzerland 1993)
- Sherisse Laurence (Luxembourg 1986)
- Rykka (Switzerland 2016)
- La Zarra (France 2023)
- Katerine Duska ( Greece 2019)
https://youtu.be/VXLWfXmlXPc?si=nVMV5LbUQp1yodBw
The 2026 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held at the Wiener Stadhalle in Vienna, Austria on 12, 14 and 16 May. The official list of the ESC 2026 competing countries is expected to be released in December.
