{"id":103557,"date":"2026-06-25T19:01:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T19:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/103557\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T19:01:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T19:01:06","slug":"canada-eligible-to-compete-in-embattled-eurovision-song-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/103557\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada Eligible to Compete in Embattled Eurovision Song Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAfter Canadian singing superstar Celine Dion won<\/a> the Eurovision<\/a> song contest while competing for Switzerland 38 years ago, fellow Canadian artists are now eligible in to compete in a popular music contest threatened by politics and a loss of sponsors. <\/p>\n

\n\tThat follows the European Broadcasting Union, the Eurovision organizer, on Thursday announcing Canada<\/a>\u2019s full membership after a vote held at its 96th General Assembly in Prague. CBC<\/a>\/Radio-Canada had been an associate member of the EBU since 1950, and now as a full member can fully participate in all European broadcasting organization events and initiatives. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCanada\u2019s voice in this community makes us stronger,\u201d Noel Curran, director general of the EBU, said in a statement. His comments came after the 2026 Eurovision contest ultimately won by Bulgaria was rocked by a boycott by Spain, Slovenia, Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlands to protest Israeli singer Noam Bettan being allowed to participate in the annual singing competition amid his country\u2019s Gaza conflict. <\/p>\n

\n\tBesides lost broadcaster license fees from boycotting countries, a host of sponsors also withdrew their key financial support over Israel<\/a>\u2018s inclusion. The EBU also faced pushback from member countries over its tele-voting rules for the competition. <\/p>\n

\n\tMarie-Philippe Bouchard, president and CEO of CBC\/Radio-Canada, thanked the EBU for allowing the Canadian pubcaster full membership, which includes among other initiatives participating in Eurovision and broadcasting the competition.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis new chapter in our relationship with the EBU and its members will deepen our cooperation at a time when the collective impact of public service media is essential. It\u2019s an important milestone that will benefit people on both sides of the Atlantic by helping to combat disinformation and support cultural expression,\u201d Bouchard said. <\/p>\n

\n\tCanada\u2019s federal government in its 2025 budget gave CBC\/Radio Canada an extra $150 million in operating funds, in part \u201cto explore Canada\u2019s participation in Eurovision.\u201d\u00a0That coincided with newly-elected Canadian prime minister Mark Carney looking to forge closer ties with Europe after U.S. president Donald Trump made taunts about Canada becoming a 51st U.S. state and launched a cross-border tariff war. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ll have more to say about the Eurovision Song Contest later,\u201d a spokeperson for CBC\/Radio Canada told The Hollywood Reporter when asked about plans for Canada to possibly participate in Eurovision 2027. The EBU\u2019s membership now spans 115 organizations in 57 countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Canadian singing superstar Celine Dion won the Eurovision song contest while competing for Switzerland 38 years ago,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,8084,37261,1823,821],"class_list":["post-103557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-cbc","tag-eurovision","tag-international","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}