Canada enters Eurovision for the first time in 2027 and sends a song to Bulgaria
Canada will take part in Eurovision for the first time in 2027, the European Broadcasting Union and CBC/Radio-Canada, the Canadian public media service, announced on 01 July 2026. According to the joint announcement by the EBU and CBC/Radio-Canada, Canada will compete at the 71st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Bulgaria, opening a new chapter for the competition that was created in Europe but has, in recent years, increasingly positioned itself as a global television and music event. The EBU stated that Canada is the first new participating market to enter the competition since Australia in 2015. The Canadian representative, under the rules confirmed by the EBU, will compete in the semi-final, while details about the method of selecting the song and artist are to be announced by CBC/Radio-Canada later in the year.
The decision was announced on Canada Day, giving the announcement additional symbolism in a country whose artists have been present in global popular music for decades, but whose state had never before had its own official performance at Eurovision. The President and Chief Executive Officer of CBC/Radio-Canada, Marie-Philippe Bouchard, said, according to the EBU announcement, that participation will make it possible to present Canadian talent on one of the most famous music stages in the world. The EBU stressed that Canadian viewers will be able to continue watching and voting in the competition, but now with the added circumstance that, for the first time, they will also have their own country on stage. This moves Canada from the position of an interested market and voter in the “Rest of the World” group to the status of an official participant.
How Canada became eligible for the competition
The key prerequisite for Canada’s entry was achieved on 25 June 2026, when CBC/Radio-Canada became a full member of the European Broadcasting Union. According to the EBU announcement, the decision was made at the 96th General Assembly in Prague, after an amendment to the statutes opened the possibility of full membership to public media organisations from outside Europe if they come from countries with a public media system aligned with the fundamental standards of the Council of Europe and with formal observer status at the Council of Europe. The EBU states that Canada meets these two criteria, which is why CBC/Radio-Canada moved from the status of a long-standing associate member to full membership.
This change is important because Eurovision is not based solely on a geographical criterion. The competition is coordinated by the EBU, and it features public media services that are members of that organisation and send a new song as a representative performance. CBC/Radio-Canada had been connected with the EBU since 1950 as an associate member, but that status in itself was not sufficient for regular participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Full membership now gives the Canadian public service an institutional framework for entering the competition without the special invitation model that marked Australia’s debut in 2015.
According to the EBU, CBC/Radio-Canada’s full membership does not relate only to Eurovision. The Canadian public service gains access to networks and content exchange within the EBU, including cooperation in the fields of investigative journalism, fact-checking, digital news, music content exchange and the Eurovision News Exchange. In practical terms, participation in Eurovision is the most visible cultural result of the new status, but membership also includes broader media cooperation between the Canadian public service and European public media.
What is known so far about Canada’s performance
According to official information, Canada will join the competition in Bulgaria in 2027 and will take part in the semi-final stage. This means that, unlike countries that have an automatic place in the final under the competition rules, the Canadian representative must earn qualification for the final evening. The EBU and CBC/Radio-Canada have not yet announced the artist, the song, the format of the national selection or the deadlines by which the decision on the representative will be made. It has only been officially confirmed that CBC/Radio-Canada will announce details about the selection of the Canadian song later in 2026.
It is also uncertain whether Canada will choose its representative through an internal selection, a televised national final or a hybrid model that would combine expert selection and public voting. Given the bilingual character of CBC/Radio-Canada and its production in English, French and eight Indigenous languages, the Canadian selection could attract attention far beyond the usual Eurovision circle. Still, until the official announcement, there is no confirmation about the language of the song, the number of candidates, the role of public voting or the way in which different music scenes from the country will be represented.
Canada’s entry also raises the issue of the competition’s programming placement for audiences in different time zones. CBC/Radio-Canada is a multiplatform public service which, according to data from the Canadian government and the EBU, operates on radio, television and digital platforms and produces content in several languages. Because of the time difference between North America and Europe, Eurovision broadcasts in Canada could have a different television dynamic from those in European countries, but the official broadcast and distribution schedule has yet to be announced. In its announcement, the EBU emphasised that Canadian viewers had already been following the competition for years and participating in voting from outside the participating countries.
Why the decision is considered important for Eurovision
The inclusion of Canada is important for the EBU because it confirms the further expansion of Eurovision’s reach beyond the traditional European framework. According to EBU data, the 70th edition of the competition in 2026 in Vienna was watched by more than 130 million people across 35 markets, while digital platforms achieved a very high level of engagement. The EBU announced that Eurovision’s TikTok channel reached more than four million followers and more than 870 million content views, while Instagram exceeded one billion views for the first time. In that context, Canada is not arriving as an entirely new market for the Eurovision brand, but as a country where interest had already been measurable through viewing, voting and fan travel to the competition.
In its official announcement, the EBU stated that Canada was among the three most active countries in “Rest of the World” voting at Eurovision 2026, a category that allows votes from viewers in countries that do not participate in the competition. In addition, Canadians, according to the same source, were among the largest ticket buyers from outside Europe for the competition in Vienna. These data explain why Canadian participation was presented as a response to an existing audience, and not merely as an attempt to expand toward a new market. For the organisers, it is especially important that Eurovision already has a fan community outside Europe that shows a willingness to interact with the competition and physically travel to the event.
The Director of the Eurovision Song Contest at the EBU, Martin Green, said, according to the official announcement, that CBC/Radio-Canada’s entry into the Eurovision family shows how the competition, although born in Europe, continues to welcome the world. The EBU also recalls that Eurovision is one of the longest-running international television formats: it has been held every year since 1956, with the exception of 2020, when that edition was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Canada’s debut therefore carries a double weight: it brings a new country into the competitive system and confirms that the EBU wants to keep Eurovision as an event that combines national representation, public media, popular music and a global digital audience.
Canadian artists have already left a strong mark on Eurovision
Although Canada has not previously performed as a state, Canadian artists have a long history on the Eurovision stage. The best-known example is Céline Dion, who won in Dublin in 1988 representing Switzerland with the song “Ne partez pas sans moi”. The official Eurovision website points out that this victory has remained one of the most important moments in the connection between Canada and the competition, especially because it preceded her international breakthrough. Dion did not perform for Canada, but her victory has often served as proof that Canadian artists can have a strong Eurovision impact even before the country’s formal entry into the competition.
Eurovision.com also lists a series of other Canadian links with Eurovision. Sherisse Laurence represented Luxembourg in 1986 and finished in third place, Lara Fabian performed for Luxembourg in 1988 and came fourth, while Annie Cotton represented Switzerland in 1993 and won third place. Natasha St-Pier performed for France in 2001 with the song “Je n’ai que mon âme” and finished fourth, while in later years artists with Canadian connections also appeared on the Eurovision scene, among them Rykka for Switzerland in 2016, Katerine Duska for Greece in 2019 and La Zarra for France in 2023.
This history gives the Canadian debut additional context: the country is not entering Eurovision without a cultural legacy in the competition, but is, for the first time, getting the opportunity to turn individual Canadian performances for other countries into an official national performance. For the music industry, this may mean new international exposure for artists, songwriters, producers and stage teams from Canada’s diverse scenes. At the same time, the Eurovision format requires a specific combination of television production, stage dramaturgy, a three-minute song and a clear performance identity, so the way in which Canada interprets its own musical diversity will be one of the most interesting topics ahead of 2027.
CBC/Radio-Canada and the cultural context of the decision
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public media service and one of the largest cultural institutions in the country, the Canadian government states. The service broadcasts and produces content in English and French, and according to data from the EBU and the Canadian government, it also operates in eight Indigenous languages, with international content in additional languages through Radio Canada International. This structure may play an important role in the way Canadian participation will be presented to domestic and international audiences, because the public service is expected to reflect the linguistic, cultural and regional diversity of the country.
The Eurovision decision also comes at a time when the future of CBC/Radio-Canada is the subject of broader public and political debate in Canada. In documents about the future of the public service, the Canadian government highlighted the corporation’s mandate to inform, enlighten and entertain, while the Department of Canadian Heritage announced in November 2025 that the budget provides 150 million Canadian dollars for modernising CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate and strengthening services in English and French. In that context, participation in Eurovision can also be viewed as part of a broader effort by the public service to connect cultural content with international audiences and digital platforms.
Still, participation in Eurovision should not be reduced solely to cultural diplomacy or promotion of the music industry. For CBC/Radio-Canada, it will also be a production challenge: the public service will have to decide how to organise the selection, how to balance national representativeness and the competitiveness of the song, and how to explain the Eurovision format to an audience that may know it less than European audiences do. Since the official selection details have not yet been announced, for now the most important point is that the institutional obstacle has been removed and that Canadian participation has been confirmed at the highest level, through the joint announcement by the EBU and the public service.
Bulgaria as Canada’s first Eurovision destination
Canada’s debut will take place in Bulgaria because that country earned the right to host after winning Eurovision 2026. According to the EBU’s official announcement about the winner, Bulgaria was represented in Vienna by DARA with the song “Bangaranga”, which brought the country its first Eurovision victory. The EBU announced that the Bulgarian performance won 516 points, including 204 jury points and 312 public-vote points. This means that the 71st edition of the competition will be held in a country that is itself in a new phase of Eurovision history, after its return and first triumph.
For Canada, Bulgaria will be the stage of its first official test in a system that combines national juries, public votes and international attention. Since the representative must pass through the semi-final, the initial goal will not only be to present Canadian musical identity, but also to qualify for the final. The EBU and CBC/Radio-Canada have not yet announced their ambitions, the performance budget or selection criteria, so it would be premature to speak about favourites or possible genres. But the very confirmation of participation means that, in the months before the competition, every new piece of information about the Canadian selection process will be closely followed.
Canada’s entry into Eurovision 2027 is therefore more than a single programming novelty. It connects a change in EBU membership, existing interest among Canadian audiences, the global reach of the competition and the long history of Canadian artists on the Eurovision scene. Until the song and artist are announced, the question remains open as to how Canada will shape its first Eurovision identity, but the official decision is already changing the map of the competition: for the first time, a song sent by the Canadian public media service will appear on the Eurovision stage.
Sources:
- European Broadcasting Union – official announcement on Canada’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2027 (link)
- Eurovision Song Contest – official announcement on the Canadian debut and earlier Canadian links with the competition (link)
- European Broadcasting Union – announcement on CBC/Radio-Canada’s full membership in the EBU (link)
- European Broadcasting Union – official announcement on Bulgaria’s victory at Eurovision 2026 (link)
- Government of Canada / Canadian Heritage – data on CBC/Radio-Canada as the national public media service (link)
- Government of Canada / Canadian Heritage – budget measures for modernising CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate (link)