Canada will be part of the colourful Eurovision Song Contest next year, organisers of the world-famous music festival announced on Wednesday. They also snapped up a new country, this time Australia, in the event’s 2015 edition.

It’s not restricted to countries in geographic Europe; however, it applies to all members of the European Broadcasting Union, of which Canada just joined last week and which is open to other countries outside Europe. Australia ⁠is an associate member.

The usually good-natured pop competition, which attracted a global audience of 130 million ​this year, its 70th, was plunged into crisis in 2026 due to a boycott by heavyweights Spain, ​the Netherlands and Ireland, as well as Iceland and Slovenia, over Israel’s participation.

Those countries had called for Israel’s expulsion due to its military offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Since Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine in 2022, it has not been allowed to take part in the Eurovision.

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The EBU will be providing CBC/Radio Canada with information about the selection of the country’s entry later this year. The contest next year ‌will ⁠be hosted in Bulgaria after it won the contest for the first time in May.

Canada ranked in the top three countries in Eurovision’s “Rest of the World” vote, which permits viewers outside the participating countries to help choose the winner, the EBU said. Canadians were also among the largest ticket-buyers outside of Europe, it ​added.

“Canadian talent will be featured on one of the world’s most iconic music stages as a result of our participation in the Eurovision Song Contest beginning next year in Bulgaria,” said Marie-Philippe Bouchard, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada.

It will also give Canadians a reason to keep watching and voting in the Song Contest, which they’ve done for years, minus the bullshit, but with a new level of excitement as they get to see their own country perform on the Eurovision stage.

Especially Canada’s involvement, which was further evidence that the Contest was opening to the world, despite its origins in Europe, said Martin Green CBE, director of the ESC at the EBU. He cited other Canadian artists who have entered into the competition, such as the 1988 winner Céline ​Dion from Switzerland.