The director of the Eurovision Song Contest says the door is open for Canada to join the popular musical spectacle, but has not yet received a formal request after the federal government said last year it would “explore participation.”
Canada’s public broadcaster, however, confirmed to Global News that it is in talks with the European Broadcasting Union about closer collaboration and has sent observers to this year’s contest.
Eurovision director Martin Green told the BBC on Wednesday that “nothing’s particularly come over my desk” from Canada but acknowledged “we are an open place” for new participants outside of Europe.
“For 70 years, our doors have been open, and we will welcome anyone through those doors who wants to share the values of this wonderful occasion and stand on our stage with friends,” he said.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has been seeking closer ties with Europe as it seeks to diversify from the United States, and the mention of Eurovision in last year’s federal budget suggested those ties could extend beyond trade and security to culture.
A line in the budget’s section on the CBC says the government is “working with CBC/Radio-Canada to explore participation in Eurovision.”
“We know that Mark Carney wants to sort of embrace Europe,” Green said.
Carney has suggested Canada’s participation in Eurovision would be positive for both the country and Europe.
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“We want Canadian culture on a global stage,” he said shortly after the budget was tabled in November. “Best culture in the world, best music in the world. I think Europe deserves to see it too.”
The 70-year-old song contest is an annual source of camp for a huge global audience that has sometimes been called Europe’s version of the Super Bowl, with hundreds of millions of viewers tuning in each year.
Canadian talent has been featured before, including a young Celine Dion, whose performance on behalf of a Switzerland-submitted song won the contest in 1988.
However, Canada is not a full member of the European Broadcasting Union, the alliance of public media outlets that runs the show, and therefore cannot participate in the contest itself.
Canada, through the CBC, is only 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 Global News that it has been in contact with the EBU and will have a presence at this year’s contest, which is set to conclude with Saturday’s finale in Vienna.
“I can confirm that we have three staff attending the ESC as observers and that we are talking with the EBU about how we can collaborate more closely and exchange more content, namely through the Eurovision News Exchange and the Euroradio Music Exchange,” he said in an emailed statement.
Mar said the CBC has been an associate member of the EBU since 1950.
Joining Eurovision was previously considered by CBC/Radio-Canada in the past but was determined to be prohibitively expensive. The federal budget did not have a specific spending figure attached to participating in Eurovision.
The contest is facing controversy this year due to previous winner Israel’s participation, with five countries — Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland — boycotting in protest due to Israel’s military actions in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.
Israel nevertheless advanced to the final this week alongside nine other countries.
—With files from Global’s Sean Previl
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