2026 is shaping up to be a big year for the Eurovision Song Contest.
As well as celebrating its 70th anniversary in May, which saw singer Dara score a first-ever win for Bulgaria, and preparing for the inaugural Eurovision Asia to be held in Thailand this November, the all-singing, all-dancing pan-European extravaganza has now welcomed a new extra-continental member in the form of Canada.
Last week the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an alliance of public service media broadcasters that owns and runs the contest, voted in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as a full member, making them eligible to join Eurovision, and today both CBC and the EBU have confirmed that the country is set to take part in next year’s cycle, which will be held in Bulgaria (traditionally the winning country hosts the following year’s competition).
Given Eurovision is the biggest singing competition on the planet (this year’s grand final in Austria drew 131 million viewers globally and saw more than 148 countries participate in the vote), the contest has unsurprisingly fielded its share of controversies too, from a failed attempt to launch an American version in 2022 (NBC’s American Song Contest) to boycotts over Israel’s participation amid the war in Gaza this year and rumors of financial struggles (due to the boycotts).
Just before news broke that Canada was planning to join the festivities, Eurovision director Martin Green sat down with Variety in an exclusive interview to discuss all of the above and more.
How long has Canada joining Eurovision been in the works?
I believe the conversation started a while back, because the key thing was that CBC wanted to become a full member of the EBU and it’s worth dwelling on that for a moment, because the EBU is a membership organization of public service broadcasters at a time when public service broadcasting is under attack, really.
Then, obviously, through that journey, one of the things is that as a full member you have the right to join Eurovision and I think that became very attractive to the broadcaster there.
Now that they’ve formally said that they want in, we’ll get them ready and welcome them with open arms. It’s very exciting.
With Australia, Israel and Canada now participating, all of whom are outside Europe, could Eurovision change its name?
No, Eurovision stands for many things now [including] that it was very firmly a European proposition grounded in Europe to bring Europe together.
We’re right up there with the Olympics and the Oscars in terms of global brand recognition, and I think, in a way, the more we go to other places, the more we do other things, the fact that the name has within it this honor of its birth and why it was created is fantastic.
Are we going to see more countries outside of Europe joining — perhaps the U.S.?
I don’t know the detail on that, because I don’t run member services. But I think what I would say is that, again, because public service broadcasting is in such a precarious time, I think more and more people around the world are seeing the value of being together and having a more powerful, combined voice.
There was a report before this year’s competition claiming Eurovision is in a precarious financial state, partly because of the five countries boycotting this year. Do you have any comment on that and is bringing Canada in partly because of the financial situation?
Let me dispel those [rumors]. I’ll use the technical term first, which is: it’s bollocks. Eurovision has a really robust model and it has over the 70 years weathered what the world tried to throw at it. So we’ll be around for many, many, many, many, many years to come. I understand why it’s an inevitable question, but no, Canada have been talking for a while about joining the EBU, knowing that that gave them a right to [join Eurovision]. We had 35 countries in Eurovision last year, I expect there to be a few more next year. As everyone can see it makes for a fantastic show, so our doors remain open. And again, the purpose of Eurovision is to bring the world together, and we’re delighted to see Canada joining us.
Last winter the EBU decided that Israel should be allowed to remain in the competition. Is there likely to be another vote about its participation?
No, that’s done. The membership spoke conclusively. Almost 70% made their decision that they believe that public service broadcasters are not responsible for the actions of their government, and that [Israeli broadcaster] Kan should be allowed to participate.
Shortly before this year’s competition the New York Times ran a story implying Israel was manipulating the vote, having finished in the top five for the past three years. What was your take on that and was there an internal review into possible vote manipulation?
We reviewed everything earlier. Unfortunately, I thought it was just a sort of rehash of lots of bits and pieces.
We had a fully validated vote again this year. We saw no evidence of undue large scale paid promotion, we saw no evidence of anything untoward in our voting at all. We know that the availability of [the audience each] being able to vote 10 times doesn’t make any difference to the outcome.
Our vote is fair and true and validated, and it’s like any vote, really. If you’re not that keen on the outcome, then next year vote more and vote for something else.
Are you hearing that some of the countries that boycotted this year might return next year?
To be fair, even if we knew that we’d keep that to ourselves because it’s their story to tell and I would never speak on their behalf.
Is there a suggestion that other countries might boycott next year?
Not that I’m aware.
This year’s Eurovision also featured three countries that were returning after taking a break from the contest, including Bulgaria, which came back after a three-year absence and won first place. Are there other reasons countries decide not to participate year to year?
People may not know that you elect to come into Eurovision on an annual basis.
We have a deadline in September every year where countries can tell us and countries will have different reasons [they might decide not to participate]. They might just want to take a break for a couple of years — it’s bloody hard work, right? Or something might be going on in their organization or there might be something else.
It’s not until the October of every year when we do the confirmation of who’s taking part that we actually know who’s coming the year after. And it’s something I actually love about it, that it is not so rigid that they’ve signed 10-year contracts and therefore you know exactly who’s going to be there. There is a bit of jeopardy every year when we announce the full list about who’s coming.
It was very moving to see Dara lift the trophy this year given it was Bulgaria’s first ever Eurovision win – how are preparations going for next year’s contest?
They’ve got a good team and I think it’s going to be very special, not least because Eurovision has never been to Bulgaria, and I think this is again the power of global events. There’ll probably be quite a lot of our fans and viewers who have never been to Bulgaria and suddenly they’re going to learn an awful amount, and obviously that pays dividends in terms of future tourism and just getting to know a country and the people of the country you may have not got to know before. It’s literally the power of the major event.
You’re also preparing for the inaugural Eurovision Asia, which is taking place in Thailand this November. How is that coming along?
We’re very excited. We’ve never had another continental version of Eurovision. It’s the first time ever but we’re going to start small and grow, because we didn’t want to rush in and do anything too big, although I think we’ve still got more countries than took part in the first ever Eurovision.
It seems like a great time to go to Asia given the global interest in K-pop.
Exactly and I think that’s why we had open ears to it, because without doubt one country is dominating popular music so I think there was a lot of the broadcasters over there who thought this was a fantastic opportunity to get other voices and other artists platformed on a global platform, and show that there’s more than one [type of] pop music in Asia.
Will it be televised outside Asia?
At the very least, we’ll be putting it through the Eurovision YouTube channel.
We’re very much hopeful that new fans, diaspora fans, current fans, future fans will have a look and celebrate our new baby’s arrival.
Will people outside Asia be able to vote?
Yes, there’ll be a “rest of the world” vote.
The U.S. version of Eurovision – 2022’s American Song Contest on NBC – wasn’t as successful as hoped. Did you learn any lessons from that?
Yes, I think so: we shouldn’t do one-country Eurovisions. I stopped all the conversations that were going on about one-country Eurovisions when I arrived, because I think our brand is that we bring broadcasters from different countries together and artists from different places together through music.
Could we see a North or South America Eurovision?
I think if the conversations are there to be had, we won’t not have them, but again, you don’t want to take things too fast. Let’s see how Asia works out.
Eurovision recently celebrated its 70th anniversary: when thinking about some of the winners over its history, like drag artist Conchita Wurst, who won for Austria in 2014, or Israel’s Dana International, who became the first ever trans winner in 1998, or Nemo as the first non-binary winner in 2024, it’s remarkable how consistently ahead of its time Eurovision has been.
It’s what we’re really proud of and I think we forget this at our peril. Eurovision has always been a place where the dispossessed found a home, and where the disenfranchised found love, and where people who felt they didn’t fit in suddenly found they profoundly did fit in and, more than that, they were center stage, singing their hearts out, and that is continuing. That will continue. And it sits as something very, very precious at the heart of this that we want to protect as much as we can.
2026 is a big year for Eurovision as a brand: as well as the 70th anniversary in May there’s the 23rd Junior Eurovision in Malta in October (where performers are aged 9 to 14) and the inaugural Eurovision Asia in November. Plus the Broadway adaptation of Will Ferrell’s 2020 movie “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga” is also in development. Are there any other big projects in the works?
Watch this space. I hope we’ll be talking about some really fun and interesting stuff before the year is out.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
English (US) ·