{"id":772667,"date":"2026-07-01T19:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T19:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/772667\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T19:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T19:01:12","slug":"canada-will-join-the-eurovision-song-contest-semi-finals-in-bulgaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/772667\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada will join the Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals in Bulgaria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada will take part in next year’s edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, organisers have announced.<\/p>\n

Canada is the first new country to join Eurovision, the world’s biggest live televised music event, since Australia in 2015.<\/p>\n

Key takeaways from Eurovision 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Slept through Eurovision this year? Here’s what you missed from Europe’s favourite song contest, in Vienna.<\/p>\n

“While born in Europe, the contest continues to welcome the world,” Eurovision director Martin Green said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Bulgaria won Eurovision 2026 in Vienna in May with Dara’s catchy floor-filler Bangaranga sweeping the 70th edition of the glitzy TV extravaganza.<\/p>\n

Australia’s Delta Goodrem had been one of the favourites to win, but ended up finishing fourth with her power ballad Eclipse.<\/p>\n

Fewer viewers after boycott<\/p>\n

This year’s contest was watched by 131 million viewers, which was 35 million fewer than in 2025, after five countries boycotted over Israel’s participation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Eurovision participation is not strictly limited to geographic Europe but instead to members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), a broadcasting alliance that includes countries beyond the continent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eurovision begins despite major boycott<\/a><\/p>\n

The first semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest has finished, sending 10 countries through to the grand final on Saturday.<\/p>\n

SBS is an associate member, which enabled Australia’s original invitation.<\/p>\n

It was announced last week that CBC\/Radio-Canada had become a full member of the EBU, paving the way for its participation in Eurovision.<\/p>\n

“We’re bringing the world’s largest live music event to Canadians,” CBC\/Radio-Canada president Marie-Philippe Bouchard said.<\/p>\n

“Our participation … will allow Canadian talent to be showcased on one of the most storied music stages in the world.”<\/p>\n

Canadian artists have previously performed in Eurovision, representing other countries.<\/p>\n

\"Celine<\/p>\n

C\u00e9line Dion won Eurovision for Switzerland in 1988. (AP:\u00a0Jacques Boissinot\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

C\u00e9line Dion gave Switzerland its second Eurovision victory at Dublin in 1988 with Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi (Don’t Leave Without Me), a year before her international breakthrough with Where Does My Heart Beat Now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Vienna 2026, Canada was in the top three nations choosing their favourites in the Rest of the World vote, according to contest organisers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canada was also one of the largest contributors of ticket-buyers outside of Europe with many Canadians heading to Austria last May.<\/p>\n

AFP\/ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada will take part in next year’s edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, organisers have announced. Canada is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,2065,5428,134,30451,136,6984],"class_list":["post-772667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-canada","tag-contest","tag-entertainment","tag-eurovision","tag-music","tag-song"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}