MUSIC | EUROVISION | OPINION

An Open Letter to CBC/Radio-Canada On The Subject Of Eurovision

Let’s start the Canadian Eurovision journey in the best way we can

Not a member? Read the free version of this article here.

Photo by Guillaume Jaillet on Unsplash

Bonjour mes amis!

Canada joining Eurovision is something I have dreamed about for decades, the confluence of two of my great loves: Eurovision and CANADA.

True, I have thought that Canada didn’t DESERVE to be in Eurovision, the way that Australia does, but that’s because I have so often felt like the ONLY Canadian Eurovision fan. (Australians have been BIG FANS for decades.)

And CBC itself tells me that I’m not alone. That Canadians are one of the largest vote cohorts in the “Rest of the World” televote category. That Canadians are one of the largest groups who actually travel to “somewhere in Europe” each May for the actual contest.

I am not alone.

And I also have Mark Carney, of course.

It is Carney’s own alleged love and appreciation of the contest, or of what it signifies within Europe, that has made this moment possible. Mark Carney lived in the UK for a decade, where he saw what Eurovision was there, and what it was in Europe. These are two different things.

In the UK, Eurovision is like a national embarrassment. The BBC puts minimal effort into chucking some no-name or has-been at the contest, and then clutch their collective pearls when no one in Europe cares about the song. And no one votes for it.

You reap what you sow. The BBC sows half-hearted lipservice to the contest, despite the financial contribution, and that is what the European voting public SENSES from the acts that are sent each year. The BBC just does not deserve to win for the UK most of the time.

In Europe, it’s a different story. There are long national competitions through the winter months in many European countries, notably Sweden, Norway, and the Baltics, but elsewhere too. These countries have entire industries geared towards taking Eurovision seriously. There are open calls, workshops, industry supports, and THEN a nationally televised selection process over weeks and weeks. The quality of song and performance that results from this kind of process is head and shoulders above the alternative.

Workshops?

Some countries have an infrastructure in place to help prospective acts get things together with a finished qualifying song. Regardless of what the broadcaster does with these songs, it’s already a more useful cog in the process than a simple coronation.

The “pro” is that there is some support for up-and-coming artists. Countries like Sweden help potential acts write for Eurovision, but this also helps the Swedish music industry en masse. It increases the talent pool, the innovation, and the quality of the song.

The “con” is that it takes effort to bring together industry professionals to mentor new talent, and, always, there is a danger that the preferences of the mentors will be shoehorned into the resulting songs, or that existing preconceptions about what a Eurovision song “is” or “should be” then limits the range of possibilities for the potential songs.

The great thing here is that it can be part of ANY selection process, but it is behind the scenes.

Seems like an important step.

So, CBC/Radio-Canada, when you fly to Bulgaria in May for Canada’s very first real participation in Eurovision (I’m ignoring, for now, the participation of CANADIANS in Eurovision, which has already happened from time to time, as many of you know) it’s all going to rest on the decision CBC executives (or perhaps Mark Carney) make NOW.

HOW will you select the entry Canada sends to the contest?

There are various established methods, with their own pros and cons. Let’s take a look at the options.

Internal Selection

This is basically a coronation. In more common terms, it’s like the awarding of a contract without a competitive bidding process. And that doesn’t play well with the public. A CBC exec, or group of execs, will make the kind of decision they like to make — an executive one — and pluck a singer or group out of their ass, or back pocket, throw together some song for them, and wash their hands of the whole thing.

The “pro” here is that it takes very little money to sign an act for one song without any real or transparent selection process.

The CON here is, why would anyone care about a random selection they had no say about? This is the problem the UK faces each and every year. The British public has NO SAY (anymore) on who represents them at Eurovision, and, as a result, the entry is so often cringeworthy or tone-deaf. Or both. Because some BBC exec made a decision that THEY thought was best, but that did NOT lead to the best SONG or the song most representative of BRITAIN.

(Do not recommend.)

Piggyback

Instead of worrying about building a popular musical extravaganza (see later), some European broadcasters latch onto existing popular musical extravaganzas.

Many countries have made use of their national The Voice singing competition, like Belgium and Georgia. And Wales (which currently doesn’t participate as an independent country because the BBC holds the exclusive broadcasting rights for the whole UK already including Wales) has said that IF they were ever able to compete separately that they’d send the winner of THEIR OWN popular singing contest. (Welsh-language public broadcaster S4C have broadcast “Cân i Gymru” (A Song for Wales) almost every year since 1969.)

Many countries have some kind of popular musical extravaganza in place, already collecting talented singers and performers. All a national broadcaster would need to do is help that winner find a suitable (internally selected) song!

The pro is obvious here. If a contest already exists, writing/singing a song for Eurovision can simply be an EXTRA part of the prize, with all the extra publicity that Eurovision inevitably leads to.

The con is that if the broadcaster commits to the piggyback, they have no control over who the public decides to send.

In Canada, we don’t really have this option anymore. There is no The Voice Canada. There is no Canadian Idol.

Sad. Could do better.

Partial Selection

Execs want to exec. I get it. But if you are going to have a successful Eurovision, you need an engaged public. This hybrid method is one step closer to that and it includes an element of internal selection.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the UK aired “A Song for Europe”, which showcased an internally selected singer singing a handful of internally selected songs, that the public could then choose between. I particularly remember 1994 when Frances Ruffelle, a West End stage star, had been selected to sing, and she performed 4 or 5 songs. “Waiting in the Wings” wasn’t my fave at the time, but it was the song selected by the public. I still remember watching the show, more than 30 years later. THAT is audience engagement. No one remembers the BBC’s internally selected announcement video.

Logistically, then, a small show, a one hour special, with an internally selected handful of singers with original qualifying songs, or one internally selected singer with a handful of internally selected songs. The public gets 40 minutes of songs and banter, and then wraps up the hour with the results of a public vote.

PRO: the public feels a LITTLE BIT of a connection before May.

CON: CBC has to put on a LITTLE BIT of a show.

Not bad. Three stars.

The National Selection Show

Here we are finally talking about a popular musical extravaganza. If you want to do well at Eurovision, you have to show Europe that you care. You have to show EUROPEANS that you are authentic. THIS is the real reason the UK does so poorly so often.

Canada doesn’t have a home-grown popular musical extravaganza. So CBC MUST BUILD ONE.

Like the Italians! Italian broadcaster RAI funds the Sanremo Music Festival, AND reaps the rewards of a lucrative advertising and licensing deal with the Municipality of Sanremo. So there IS a way to make this pay for itself.

The winner of Sanremo is automatically given the FIRST OPTION to be the Italian entry for Eurovision. (And Sanremo actually helped INSPIRE Eurovision in the first place!)

Imagine: a full-on singing competition open to all Canadians. An open call to new AND established Canadian talent. Writers, singers, producers, all coming together to make excellent music. Importantly (for them), CBC execs still get their behind-the-scenes power trip by selecting 40 of the most promising songs/acts who have applied, and making the best use of every professional who wants to be involved.

Sweden’s Melodifestivalen is a great model to follow.

My suggestion would be: CBC airs 5 weekly heats, of 8 acts each, and a public vote sends 2 acts per heat to a “grand final”. In Week 6, “wild card round” sees the 3rd and 4th place acts from each heat compete for TWO remaining spots in the final. Hearing the songs a second time is actually a GOOD thing for getting people to like a song.

Then, in the last week, 12 acts face off in the “grand final”, and you make a big show of Eurovision connections, have some Canadian dance or musical act while the results are tabulated and “verified”, maybe the presenters do a tongue-in-cheek musical number, with subtitles so the audience don’t miss any of the jokes, and then the winner is eventually revealed, the golden ticker tape falls.

There is cheering.

(CBC execs should watch Melodifestivalen to see what I mean.)

Result? The BIG PRO: audience engagement.

The con? The cost, of course. But hey, we’ve all seen the BUDGET.

Recommended, five stars.

The Bottom Line

Mark Carney wants to show Europe that we are part of the Free World, not an American vassal. So far so good. Some may scoff that it isn’t quite that simple, but it is an important political statement in itself.

And the Europeans themselves believe in the post-WW2 “Pax Eurovisiana”. It is now inconceivable that Germany and France could ever go to war, for example. And this kind of fundamental “Peace in Europe” was the entire point of Eurovision. Being in Eurovision is as important as having trade deals or defense pacts or rare-earth contracts.

Eurovision shows us all that people are people in the same way that going to university does, or living in a bustling metropolitan city can. No matter where we are from, we all want a sense of community, belonging, and acceptance. We all laugh and cry. We all bleed and grieve. We all rejoice in music.

The Music is the Message

Music transcends barriers. Certainly national borders, but also linguistic barriers. In this year’s contest, a song in ALBANIAN brought me to tears. I don’t know a single word of Albanian. But the emotion and imagery was universal. And as a bonus, in the Grand Final performance, subtitles completed the masterpiece.

The songs that do well at Eurovision must have broad popular appeal. Sometimes that means being conventional. Sometimes it means breaking all expectations.

A bona fide rock band. A lady doing a chicken impression. A heartfelt ballad. A banging spectacle of dance and rhythm. A guy at a piano. A bearded drag queen. Rubber-masked rock demons.

ALL of these are past Eurovision winners. People like to pigeonhole Eurovision as “bad europop” and that is just inaccurate. The standout acts buck the trends by being authentically themselves.

THAT is what Canada must bring to Eurovision.

Should we sing in English? Probably. But exclusively? NO WAY. Sing in French too. Sing in Cree, Ojibway, or Inuktitut. Or in ALL of them. Sing in other IMMIGRANT languages. A word of Arabic, Ethiopian, Nigerian, Mandarin, Ukrainian. We can do anything we want. We can be our best selves.

What IDEA represents Canada best?

Some potential answers include: bilingualism, politeness, resilience, the need for Truth and Reconciliation, beavers, loons, and maple syrup. But also multiculturalism, tolerance, and openness.

Genuinely nice and good people, from sea to shining sea. The true north strong and free? Mounties?

Well, I’m not suggesting we send singing Mounties. At least not on our first shindig. But I also won’t rule it out for the future.

If you want some idea of what a “new to Eurovision” country can do, look at this list of Australian entries (2015–2025).

[embed]ESC #4 — Australia The fourth country in my Eurovision Mind Game!medium.com

I’m also not saying “copy Australia”.

Nope. I’m saying: “Be inspired, be inspiring, be Canadian.”

Bonne chance!

Thanks for reading!

Don’t miss out — get notified when I post: CLICK ON FOLLOW!

Want to check out the other Fantasy Eurovision Contestants? Keep your eye on THIS page:

[embed]My 21st Century Fantasy Eurovision Game Some people have March Madness. Some have Fantasy Football. I have Eurovision.medium.com