It's an international competition that brings euphoria to audiences and phoenixes to its participants, and Canada may soon be joining the Eurovision Song Contest.
It wasn't a big-ticket item, but the Liberal government's 2025 budget included a line saying CBC was working with the public broadcaster to explore participation in the Popular Song Contest.
Eurovision began in 1956 and is organized annually by the European Broadcasting Union. Artists from multiple countries in Europe are performing, but there are also some artists from overseas, including Australia.
This camp-style singing contest, also known as the European Super Bowl, is watched by hundreds of millions of people around the world.
“We want to showcase Canadian culture on the world stage,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday. “The best culture in the world, the best music in the world, and I think Europe deserves to see that too.”
Carney is a fan of popular song content.
Canadians have competed in the contest in the past, with Celine Dion winning in 1988 representing Switzerland. In the same year, Lara Fabian, who acquired Canadian citizenship in 1995, represented Luxembourg and finished fourth.
Montreal-born La Zara represented France in the 2023 contest and placed 16th with her performance of “Evidemment.”
Mr. Carney has been reaching out to a number of countries in recent months as Canada looks to like-minded trading partners amid a trade war with the United States.
Eurovision Song Contest historian Dean Vretic told Global News he was not surprised that Canada's budget included a line about the contest. He noted that joining the competition has been discussed in Canada since Australia joined in 2015.
“Canada is a country culturally and politically close to Europe, especially the countries of the European Union,” Vretić said. “We're talking about the EU member states that are at the heart of Eurovision, and the countries that Canada is trying to build closer relationships with given the current global situation.
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“I think this is also a way for Canada to strengthen its ties with the European Union, even though Eurovision is not officially tied to the European Union…This is a way for Canada to show that it is closely connected to the European Union, that it shares the values of the European Union.”
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne told Global News that Europe welcomed the idea.
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“I think this is a request from participants and a platform for Canada to shine,” Champagne said Tuesday.
Participation in Eurovision had previously been considered by CBC/Radio-Canada, but was deemed prohibitively expensive.
Canada had plans to launch a televised singing contest that would send winners to Eurovision in the same way that other contesting countries choose their entries.
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Lindsay Cox, co-chief content officer at Toronto's Insight Productions, told The Canadian Press that the original plan for an English-only show was scrapped in favor of a “bilingual-hosted show.”
Mr Cox said there had been “ongoing discussions” with the CBC since the budget was announced, but did not provide further details.
The big question, according to Eurovision expert Karen Fricker, is if Canada enters the contest, will there be enough appetite to pay attention?
“It's a lot of fun to watch, but are you interested?” asked Fricker, an adjunct professor of theater arts at Brock University in Niagara.
Fricker told Global News that the contest is very popular among various immigrant and diaspora societies, some of whom bring their home country's broadcasts into their homes to watch the contest.
Additionally, youth culture has entered the pageant during the COVID-19 pandemic, which some in the LGBTQ2S community are calling the “gay Olympics” – 2024 contest winner Nemo identifies as non-binary, while 2025 winner JJ identifies as queer.
Fricker noted that Australia's decision could also inform Canada's decision.
“The decision was made that Australia, like Canada, is a country of immigrants, and in addition to having indigenous people, they really, really have built a following in Australia,” Fricker said. “So when Australia got the opportunity to compete, it made a lot of sense because the public was very excited. I feel like we need to build that here (in Canada).”
—With files from Global News' Touria Izri and The Canadian Press
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