Will Canada and Kazakhstan get the green light from the EBU to compete at Eurovision 2026? There has been much speculation regarding if there will be any debuting countries at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna.
Two countries seem to be keen to join the Eurovision Song Contest next year, Canada and Kazakhstan. Both Khabar Agency (Kazakhstan) and CBC ( Canada) are ASSOCIATE EBU members and are thus NOT ELIGIBLE to compete at the Eurovision Song Contest unless the EBU extends a formal invitation as has been the case with Australia.
The EBU has confirmed that it is in initial talks with Canada’s national broadcaster, CBC, regarding its participation at Eurovision. Kazakhstan has been vying to enter the competition for several years, having competed at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest several times and having broadcast the ESC in the past.
Kazakhstan
Kazakh broadcaster Khabar Agency is an associate EBU member since 2016 and thus NOT ELIGIBLE to participate at the Eurovision Song Contest, Kazakhstan has to be formally invited by the EBU to join the competition. It is entirely up to the EBU’s discretion to extend an invite to the country very much like in the case of Australia. The Kazakh broadcaster has been airing the contest for the past years.
Kazakhstan debuted at the 2018 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Minsk and has competed in the competition five times.
Khabar Agency has also been in talks with the EBU in order to compete at the ESC. Last summer Khabar Agency stated that it would like to get invited to join the contest.
Canada
Canadian national broadcaster, CBC, is an associate member of the EBU since 1950, and thus NOT ELIGIBLE to participate at the Eurovision Song Contest, Canada has to be formally invited by the EBU to join the competition. It is entirely up to the EBU’s discretion to extend an invite to the country much very like in the case of Australia.
Canada is keen to enter the Eurovision Song Contest, its federal government has included a budget for a potential Eurovision participation in its 2025 Federal Bugdet.
CBC is in talks with the EBU for a potential participation at the Eurovision Song Contest, but its still early days yet to know when and how these talks will materialise.
So far 31 have confirmed their participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026, more countries are expected to confirm in due course. The official list of the Eurovision 2026 competing countries is expected to be released in December. The deadline for broadcasters to confirm their participation at ESC 2026 has been extended until mid December.
In 2015 the EBU invited Australia to compete at the Eurovision Song Contest, conciding with Eurovision’s 60th edition. Will the EBU extend a special invite to Canada and Kazakhstan for next year’s Eurovision edition? We should note that next year Eurovision turns 70!
We will have to wait a tad longer to see if we will have any debuting countries at ESC 2026. The last time a country debuted at the contest was back in 2015 when Vienna hosted the competition- Australia made its debut.
The 2026 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 12, 14 and 16 May at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria.
