By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, July 1 (Reuters) – Canada will join the Eurovision Song Contest in 2027, organisers of the colourful music competition watched by millions around the world announced on Wednesday, becoming the first new country to join since Australia in 2015.
Participation is not limited to countries in geographic Europe but instead applies to all members of the European Broadcasting Union, an alliance open to others outside the continent and which Canada joined last week. Australia is an associate member.
The usually good-natured pop competition, which attracted a global audience of 130 million this year, its 70th, was plunged into crisis in 2026 due to a boycott by heavyweights Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland, as well as Iceland and Slovenia, over Israel’s participation.
Those countries had called for Israel’s expulsion due to its military offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Russia has been excluded from Eurovision since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
EUROVISION HIGHLY POPULAR IN CANADA
CBC/Radio Canada will share details on how the country’s entry will be selected later this year, the EBU stated. The contest next year will be hosted in Bulgaria after it won the contest for the first time in May.
Canada ranked in the top three countries in Eurovision’s “Rest of the World” vote – which permits viewers outside the participating countries to help choose the winner, the EBU said. Canadians were also among the largest ticket-buyers outside of Europe, it added.
“Our participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, starting next year in Bulgaria, will allow Canadian talent to be showcased on one of the most storied music stages in the world,” said Marie-Philippe Bouchard, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, in a statement.
“It will also allow fans in Canada to continue watching and voting in the Song Contest, as they have done for years – with the added thrill of seeing their own country represented on the Eurovision stage.”
Canada’s participation was a further sign that, while born in Europe, the Contest was opening up to the world, said Martin Green CBE, ESC director at the EBU. He pointed to previous Canadian artists who have participated in the competition, including Céline Dion who won in 1988 for Switzerland.
(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, editing by Kirsti Knolle, Alexandra Hudson)
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