Saskatoon is about to get lit! On Monday the European Broadcasting Union — the body behind the original Eurovision Song Contest — announced a new international spin-off: Eurovision Canada.
The show will premiere in 2023. It will features artists “from each of the 10 provinces and three territories.”
As fans of the world’s second-biggest country know, that means we’ll see talents representing: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Newfoundland & Labrador, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut.
Canucks have given the world a lot of culture — particularly when it comes to pop music. Drake, Justin Bieber and The Weeknd have been tearing up the charts in recent years — as did their predecessors Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Carly Rae Jepsen, Sarah McLachlan and Shania Twain.
The United States’ northern neighbour has also gifted Eurovision fans one of their biggest icons: Celine Dion, who famously won the contest for Switzerland in 1988.
The news that Eurovision Canada will hit the airwaves next year creates something of a trend. During Eurovision 2019, the EBU confirmed that the American Song Contest was in the works.
That series debuted last month to a lukewarm response (if ratings are anything to go by). But producers have previously said they understand it will take a few editions for the show to catch fire. ASC will reach its grand conclusion on May 9.
Are you excited about this latest spin-off of Eurovision? What countries could be next? Let us know down below…
I think it would be better if Canada just joins Eurovision. It’s half French and has close cultural ties to France and Europe. It certainly deserves it more than Australia and since Russia and Belarus aren’t coming back anytime soon, we have 2 vacant spots.
“The format will position artists head-to-head against other provincial/territorial representatives in a series of televised Qualifier Competitions, leading to Semi-Finals and the ultimate primetime Grand Finale.”
This format does not make any sense. There are 10 provinces and 3 Territories. Why not all 13 compete in one night – similar to old years of Eurovision when there were no semi-finals and the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
What about NELLY FURTADO? Why nobody’s mention her?
Cool for the Canadians. But don’t call it ‘Eurovision’ if it hasn’t got anything in common with the real thing.
No USA, Canada in ESC ,and also no Australia from 2023.
“The country that gave us Drake…”
No, thanks.
The country that gave us Avril Lavigne, Simple Plan, Celine Dion, Ryan Reynolds, Nathan Fullion, Natasha St. Pier, Lara Fabian (indirectly), Degrassi.
I just want something for the rest of the american countries ??´???? it’d be so fun…
wiwi why won’t you let me use emoticons
I thought I saw there was one in development for Spanish speaking countries + Portugal and Brazil
Well, this means only an OTI revival is impending…
If the US and Canada want their song contests….thats fine, I hope they enjoy them but PLEASE don’t merge them with Eurovision. There’s no hate at all but let us enjoy our tradition as it is/was
Yyayy… I’m both French and Canadian so I couldn’t be happier with that news 🙂
a what now? Can’t they just unite countries in the Americas, it’s the whole point of the competition
Omg I woke up and thought this was a prank, but I am so happy we are getting our own song contest!!! I’m looking forward to this!
We don’t want it.
I mean just let them in Eurovision like Austrailia. Canada (well at least the east) are very much like a European country so why not…They can replace Belarus/Russia
Australia is enough, I’d rather have them focus on bringing back the likes of Bosnia – Herzegovina and Slovakia instead.
Slovakia does’nt want to come back so why put effort on someone who is not interested?
And B& H broadcaster is on the verge of shutting down so what is EBU going to do?
I don’t know, just saying that if I had to choose I’d much rather have two countries that are actually European back, especially B&H due to some of their past entries.
Jon Ola Sand once spoke of 46 countries as the maximum. I’d say: just make 46 countries the standard. And if those 46 can’t be reached with EBU member countries alone, just invite other countries from around the world to participate at their own expenses (of course they’d have to go through the semis as well).
So unlike the ASC, this one comes as a surprise! Will we see new spin offs in the years to come? Hopefully we’ll see Asiavision someday.
another flopped contest, mr. @?
Worldvision is near!
I wouldn’t be worried about these North American spin-offs damaging the real Eurovision but I wonder if, in case of flops (I don’t know if ASC improved its ratings and the level of the entries, sadly I lost interest a couple of weeks ago), this will make more difficult to make more people watch ESC in these countries. In any case, I hope the Canadians fan have fun with it and that their show manages to carry Eurovision’s spirit better than its neighbour from the South.
Tegan and Sara, please.
This is awesome! Wish they would just integrate Eurovision Canada with ESC seeing the show has just lost Belarus and Russia but seeing how some fans are very protective of the “brand”, I guess it won’t happen anytime soon.
How long before Afro vision?
Might lose it’s appeal when Niigeria fixes the televote every year.
i think an african version has already happened, just at a way smaller scale. i would honestly love to see it done properly though
You could at least try to hide your racism, you know.
There was the Afrimusic Song Contest, but it was a much smaller scale and the last edition was 2020.
No. Hell no. Stop making eurovision spin offs¡
13 songs seems a bit lame.
There are National Finals with more entries than that
The Eurovision (former known as Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson Européenne) had started in 1956 with 7 countries …..so 13 songs are not such a big problem.
Still nothing but a national final, tbh.
Sounds very fascinating. Canada is having a musical renaissance right now and many of our most listened to artists are Canadian so no doubt it will be good
I for one can’t wait to hear what Nunavut will bring us. And I have a secret fantasy The Tragically Hip will somehow reunite and give us that unique Canadian sound..
Eurovision is like the Olympic Games. You might not like archery but since it is the Olympic Games and your country is participating you watch it.
CanadaVision is like an archery national competition. Would you watch your country’s archery Cup? I doubt it. I even doubt your national tv would air the National Archery Cup.
If you put it that way, maybe. But in reality, the show will probably end up like Sanremo which continue to enjoy high rating and audience number year after year even when they suspended their participation in Eurovision.
Or maybe like the USVision…
I hope it will be a proper bilingual show where everything is in English and French, not just the token French words sprinkled here and there like it’s done in Eurovision.
As far as I know, the CBC is the country’s only bilingual broadcaster, providing services for both English and French-speaking communities.
As long they don’t ruin the original Eurovision, EBU can create as many rip-offs as they want. I wil never care about them anyway.
Eurovision has a beautiful story of uniting people from all over europe and the world. It was born out of war and has become one of the most diverse and liberal events ever. What is the point of Canada or USA getting a version of their own? I honestly would rather they just participate in the real Eurovision
What? HelI no…
Why not? You fans are getting annoying. I hate these spinoffs and I agree, at least Canada should be in Eurovision.
What? Hell no… x2
Eurovision literally just kicked out two participants in recent years. What unity are y’all talking about?
Canada is also a very big country.
Soon we will hear about China vision lol
At first I thought that William was having a laugh with us, but the story also dropped on Eurovision.tv and Deadline. Eh.
No broadcast partner announced yet, by the way.
Canada has always had great musicians, so even a 13-act show should be good. Quebec will probably bring the only song in French, of course.
Or English as Quebec also gave us Simple Plan. 🙂
There’s always an exception, and one who knows it.
New/Nouvelle Brunswick is very bilingual, so they might bring songs in French too, or maybe mixed-language songs. And we might get to hear songs in Inuit from Nunavut or NW Territories. That would be really interesting!!
Gotta love Celine. You just can’t get any more fabulous than that.
Peak 80’s style
“It will features artists from each of the 10 provinces and three territories.”
Come. On. Now.
Does anyone really believe that someone would take interest in a competition between*districts in Canada*?!
Just admit that you’re turning Eurovision into a worldwide reality show like The Voice and stop pretending it’s about cultural differences. And personally I hope it fails like asc because it cheapens esc and ignoring its meaning and its inseparable connection to Europe, from way back in history.
Of creating bridges, uniting people through their love of music?
I’m curious and would watch the show. But you’re right—some people probably not gonna enjoy a boring song competition between districts of Canada. Why would they? Europe is the center of the world and everywhere else is irrelevant. /s
Unlike ASA I actually don’t mind this for some reason, probably because I like Canada more than USA lol
Another melodifestivalen marketed as eurovision? No thanks
Considering Melodifestivalen is considered the gold standard for Eurovision national selections because of its production values and it being closest in format with the Contest itself.
Canada does everything better then USA. So this will be better.
OMG. It’s an infestation. I’m having Nunavut.
i’m sure this will work out better than its unnecessarily long american counterpart. i had no idea there was a market for this, especially considering how low the asc’s ratings were, but we’ll see !
Canadians are very proud of their diversity, they’d know how to get as many different styles as possible into those 13 entries, won’t blend together as much as +50% of asc does
I probably wouldn’t mind it somewhere in the future, but why so early? American version appeared only this year, wouldn’t it be more rational to concentrate on it, put more efforts and money? There’re a lot of things that still might be improved in ASC
ASC (X-Factor in disguise) has flopped, EBU might even think of putting it on hiatus indefinitely. They want another contest to replace it. And this is where Canada comes into play.
I think the Eurovision producers don’t understand that the appeal of Eurovision is, partly, that it’s so uniquely European. You can’t reproduce that in the US or Canada. It’s not a concept like The Voice which you can just copy-paste to basically every country on earth. Nobody knows it’s originally a Dutch show, because there’s nothing Dutch about it. That’s different with Eurovision.
It is easier to reproduce in the US than in Canada though. You know, because of the 50 (or 52) states
What does “uniquely European” even mean? Eurovision is just a song contest pitting different countries together and with Eurovision Canada they are scaling it down to different provinces instead. There’s nothing much to it.
Yes, but wHy scale it down to regional level instead of trying to produce one contest for all of the americas?
Eurovision isn’t just a song contest. All the cultures, politics, languages, neighbourly feuds, local tastes, everything comes into play. You can’t tell me that the same kind of sentiment exists between, say, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
1- If Priyanka is in, I’m in.
2- John Reardon as Nova Scotia spokesperson. Please and thank you
+1 for Priyanka. Yasss.
This is the sort of conversation I wanna listen to, rather than people debating whether or not the song contest is necessary in the first place.
Hmmmmm- the issue here is the America Song Contest…. which has had some really good aspects but is fast degenerating into a diluted X Factor- the franchising of ESC needs to be handled with car- I am hopeful the Canadian version can elevate beyond just another version of X Factor shrouded in a time honoured label.(ESC)
My favourite show (originally from Austria) has a Canadian Version and honestly, I did have my fears it would be too much American-ish, but they are doing a good job keeping with the spirit and the things I’ve always loved from the show since Vienna Days.
So, I have more trust on the Canadians doing a good job keeping the Eurovision Spirit than on the Americans.
You mean Hudson and Rex/Kommissar Rex? XD
Oh, yes. Good to see someone else who knows the show here.
To be fair, the US did a good job adapting the UK’s Ghosts, The Office and Shameless, and Sweden’s Expedition Robinson.
“Diluted X Factor” would mean having judges eating 99% of screentime and making it all about them.
EBU preferring Canada instead of the continent of Asia? ignoring a region that should have had it far earlier for the past few years now? really EBU, really? what in the world are they even thinking? if I was one of them in the EBU team, I would decide to not expand to another region/country/continent unless Asia had got it properly.
Thats true
it’s much easier to organize the canadian song contest than asiavision. asia is a continent with far more serious political issues than europe.
but it is not an apple-to-apple expansion. Eurovision is a continental event, and the proper expansion will be from a continent to another (Asia, the whole Americas, Africa), and then Worldvision as the pinnacle.
Continental event but the Eastern half of the continent was excluded for 30 years because of politics…
Eurovision Asia was abandoned due to complicated political issues (China bans South Korean pop culture, for example). It just goes to show how lucky Europeans are to enjoy Eurovision year after year.
This can only probably be fake. There are regions with millions of people and others with only some thousand and that are hard to reach.
Ooo i really thought it was at first aha but after reading the comments i dont think it is. a lot of my favourite artists are from Canada so let’s see how it will be
As a Canadian I am so happy! We have a huge music scene with a huge variety of genres, we can be getting french music from Quebec, and songs in native languages from the territories! I understand the backlash, but this show won’t hurt Eurovision in the slightest.
AAAAHHH, SUCH EXCITING NEWS! And, since Canada does kind of have a bigger sense of self-respect for their country, I really hope their own version of the National Song Contest is better than the American one, lol (Washington and Oregon clear).
God…
What is your problem with him?
We’ll all get wrinkles when we get to his age.
Problem? His American Song Contest experiment is crashing and burning. I hope Canada doesn’t make the same mistake by hiring him.
It doesn’t really take one to soley do the tango. It’s an entire team of executives who runs ASC, not just Christer.
Out of all of the attempts to bring the Eurovision brand and format to non-European parts of the world, I actually think Eurovision Canada stands the best chance of becoming successful. Canada offers more diversity, but also having French as an official language, they can offer the same presenting style as regular ESC and the same points allocation format too, like we can actually get a “nil point” as per the regular Eurovision. I can see this one becoming quite big. It will be much more closer in style to the actual Eurovision than the American Song Contest, or what… Read more »
To be fair, while the US doesn’t have an official language, its two most spoken languages, English and Spanish was well reflected the songs in contention. We got a sizeable amount of songs sung in Spanish.
American Song Contest feels more like an American version of Melfest rather than Eurovision.
My point being that I think Eurovision Canada will actually be much closer in style in our original Eurovision.
It has to do more of accommodating 56 of its states and territories and figuring out a way to get people living across multiple timezones to take part, if it’s the 3 round-style format you’re referring to. That’s the thing with adapting, you have to make necessary changes in an already-established structure. If given the chance to be renewed for another year, then a change in the format is more than needed. Melfest, being a show specifically made to select an act for ESC, and ESC itself started going to where they are now more or less around the same… Read more »