The public Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)/Radio-Canada refused to answer when asked how much it expects to spend on competing in the 2027 Eurovision Song Contest, the Canadian Press revealed on Tuesday.
Eurovision is an annual music competition in which dozens of mostly European countries submit an original song to be performed live. The contest typically consists of two semi-final competitions and one “Grand Final” from which the champion is chosen via public votes and the votes of national professional juries in competing countries. It is held annually in May; the 2026 edition, won by Bulgaria, held its Grand Final on May 16.
Leftist Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Canada Day, July 1, that his country would participate in the 2027 edition of the contest, one of a handful of countries not located in Europe to do so, expected to include regulars such as Australia and Israel. Carney described the decision to join as responding to global demand for “more Canada” and boasted that his country would be highly competitive to win the trophy.
Eurovision is organized by the European Broadcast Union (EBU), made up of the public broadcasters of participating countries. The CBC joined the EBU shortly before confirmation that the country would participate in Eurovision, the first debutante in the 2027 season.
As a public broadcaster, the CBC is funded by the Canadian taxpayer. The Canadian Press reached out to the organization asking for estimates as to how much the event would cost and was denied any meaningful information.
“Such information is generally considered competitive and confidential,” CBC spokesperson Leon Mar said in an email to the news agency.
Left with no direct answer, the Canadian Press observed that the 2025 national budget offered the CBC an extra $150 million intended in part to “explore participation in Eurovision.” The budget was announced in November, before the CBC joined the EBU, and fueled speculation that Canada would be joining as soon as next year. That decision outraged some in Canada, which considered the price tag to regular Canadians alarming.
“This is a public broadcaster that already receives well over a billion dollars a year from Ottawa, justified on grounds of serving Canadians with news and culture they can’t get elsewhere. Now that broadcaster is spending nine figures to enter a European glitter pageant,” the Winnipeg Sun denounced in an outraged editorial in early July. “Nobody asked Canadians if this was a priority. Nobody put it to a vote. It showed up in a budget line as an afterthought, and the prime minister, by his own government’s admission, pushed it personally.”
Multiple reports have described Carney as an enthusiastic Eurovision fan, a reputation he did little to shake in announcing Canada’s entry into the competition.
“The most gloriously over-the-top celebration of music on earth: dozens of countries, hundreds of millions of viewers, one unforgettable show,” Carney praised in July. “It’s about to get even better, even wilder, because the world needs more Canada.”
Reports prior to the confirmation of Canada’s joining also noted that anonymous sources described Carney as being “personally involved” in making it a reality. Carney himself had publicly made comments indicating that he was intimately aware of the contest, such as complaining that 2025 Australian contestant Go-Jo was “robbed” after not making it to the Grand Final in conversation with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
The Canadian Press estimated that organizing a bid for the contest could cost between $400,000 to upwards of $1.5 million, citing known spending figures from other countries from the past year. Given the range of economic conditions faced by participating countries, the tab spans a wide range of prices. The low figure, the Canadian Press noted, was from Portugal, while Israel, which came in second place in the last two editions of the contest, spent $1.5 million a bid. In other years, countries with more limited resources managed to bring the price down significantly; the Canadian outlet noted that North Macedonia paid $64,000 as its participation fee in 2022, the last year it participated. The contest has been economically onerous for some of its smallest participants. In the most notorious case, Bosnia and Herzegovina has been banned from participating until it pays an outstanding $13.2 million in debts owed to the EBU.
Adding to expenses is the process to choose a contestant. Countries are allowed to choose how they select their representative and have a variety of different processes. Some opt for an “internal selection” in which the national broadcaster simply chooses an act, who then works to produce an original song. Others invest in the production of a national final – a competition among domestic artists to win the privilege of representing the country. Among the most prominent such contests are Melodifestivalen in Sweden and Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK) in Finland. Other countries such as Spain and Italy host their own national song contests, Benidorm Fest and the Sanremo Music Festival respectively, from which they typically choose a Eurovision representative, but the contests are not held exclusively to feed into Eurovision.
The CBC is expected to offer more information on choosing a representative in the fall, but Carney has hinted that the country will not engage in an internal selection.
“You will decide which Canadian artist first steps onto that Eurovision stage beneath our flag,” Carney said during his initial announcement about Ottawa’s participation.