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Can any country join the Eurovision Song Contest?

a girl looks thoughtfully at the eurovision logoImage source, Getty/EBU
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Could Canada join the Eurovision Song Contest? Well, director Martin Green says, if it wants to, it could.

"We will welcome anyone through those doors who wants to share the values of this wonderful occasion and stand on our stage with friends," said Mr Green.

This is because Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, raised the idea of Canada joining the song contest in his 2025 budget plan.

At this year's event the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) - which is Canada's national public TV and radio broadcaster - has confirmed that it has sent a team to this year's contest as "observers" - which means they will just watch and not make any decisions yet.

Eurovision director Martin Green also confirmed that Canada hadn't yet applied to be a part of the contest.

So what are the rules? Can any country join the Eurovision Song Contest? Find out below...

Can any country join the Eurovision Song Contest?

the UK's 2026 entry, look mum no computer, performing at the competitionImage source, Getty Images

Well, yes and no.

As its name suggests, the Eurovision Song Contest is mainly a showcase for European talent which is run by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

The EBU is the largest club of public media service organisations in the world, and is made up of 68 members in charge of more than 100 broadcasting organizations from 56 countries.

Most of these organisations are based in Europe, such as the UK, Spain, France and Germany, and are able to compete in Eurovision.

There are also 28 'Associate members' of the EBU from 18 countries outside of Europe, including Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and Canada.

Guy Sebastian of Australia performs at eurovisionImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Guy Sebastian performed for Australia at Eurovision in 2015.

The rules says that associate members could be eligible to enter Eurovision, but that is decided by the governing body on "a case-by-case basis".

The only associate member to ever be approved to join Eurovision is Australia, which was granted special permission to take part in 2015 as part of the 60th birthday celebrations, because the contest is very popular there.

Eurovision bosses were so impressed that Australia has been allowed to return every year ever since.

So, there is a chance that Canada could also be allowed to compete one day.