Canada announces finalists for Eurovision

It's an historic day for Eurovision contestants. For the first time ever, Canada will be competing in the world famous song contest. Held annually since 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest is considered one of the world's biggest live music spectacles, known for its extravagant costumes and performances. Five finalists selected by a jury of music industry professionals and public broadcasting executives were announced last hour here on CBC News Network. Here are some of the highlights. Our first finalist. If Canadians want to discover your music, what song should they listen to? Oh my God, that's a good question. Maybe Nous, because it's a powerful ballad and you can hear my vocals ability. I wrote a song recently that's on my album. It's called Take Care of You. And it's a song I wrote for the little Josiane, the little version of myself. to not forget to take care of her, that I won't forget to take care of her. It is such an honor. It's such an exciting time. So I would just take everything that I've learned, that I've absorbed from watching all of the amazing acts throughout the years on the stage, and combine them with all the skills that I've honed right here in Canada. I think of Vancouver. I think of Prince Edward Island. I think of Ottawa. I think of Toronto. All these places where I've called home over the years. So I would be extremely honoured to wear the Canadian badge on my chest on the world stage. You should listen to Goodbye Forever. It's a rock opera tune, and it's very dramatic and very bold and full of life, like me. Yes, I think it's well left. Now, Canada is able to participate in Eurovision due to CBC Radio Canada being admitted as a full member of the European Broadcasting Union over the summer. Israel, Australia, and Morocco are the other non-European countries participating. For more, let's bring in CBC senior entertainment reporter Magda Gavis-Alesa. Magda, take us through the five Canadians who were just announced as part of the Eurovision shortlist. Let's begin with Rev. Okay, so Rev is, you know, she was born in Montreal. She's known for her dance, pop-style music, and she is a Juno winner. She took home the Juno for Dance Recording of the Year in 2023. And here she is talking to you last hour. Eurovision is all about the celebration of individuality and maximalism. So we as Canada, I mean, I'm so excited for us to match that. You know, like, it's such a history of maximalism and individuality and showmanship. And I'm just very excited for one of us lucky contestants to bring. unfortunately it's just one right yes so not only is it a fantastic song with a deep meeting which is yet to be determined but something important and then it's going to be the costuming the staging the choreography for something truly unforgettable and next up we have William Cloutier who's from Victoriaville Quebec uh you know he's a pop singer songwriter he's no stranger to singing competitions. When he was a teen, he was on Mixmania and performed there at that time. And here he is now as one of the potential candidates for Eurovision. Take a listen. Oh my God. Something crazy because we are capable of great things in Canada. And I would like a creative team to build a powerful performing. and, of course, I'm going to take some learning in English. All right, and next up, we have an artist who describes her music as emotional pop. I'm talking about Josie-Anne. She is from Dieppe, New Brunswick. She's a singer-songwriter, and she actually won the competition, The Voice, the Quebec version of The Voice, in 2020. Here's more from her. Well, I don't think there's anyone that hasn't been through heartbreak, whether it's with a loved one or anything. um, any relationship you go through. And for me writing about that is to help people overcome these difficult, um, these difficult steps in their lives and they, that they feel less lonely and that they find themselves at the end of all of it. I think it's so important to take care of ourselves and to not forget our value. And that's what I preach for the people around. All right. And the fourth contestant is Tyler Shaw from BC's singer songwriters. While he talked about loving writing about love and relationships he's been nominated for Junos before here's more for him I grew up in Vancouver British Columbia I went to the University of Prince Edward Island I lived in Toronto for 10 years and we're actually live in Ottawa now so I've lived all over the country I've visited all these places so I've seen so many beautiful parts of this amazing country and met amazing people so I think we deserve to to put it all on the line on Eurovision stage and i'm ready to do just that and the last of the five is talk who's described his music as being like rock opera he's from ottawa plays plenty of instruments and won the juno for breakthrough artist of the year in 2024 here's more for me specifically i've been watching this for 15 years um 2010 was the first year i watched and it's become a yearly thing for me and my friends this so it's it's not just like oh this is a good opportunity it's like this actually means something um and i've also been since it's been announced been working to build a team i i think Canadians are going to see that this is not just a song this is an American Idol this is something that countries put years of work into um and jumping in in our first year is going to be really new and scary for a lot of people and so i went ahead and you know made contacts with people who have worked for other countries and tried to put a team together that has more experience that can, you know, get me to the finals. They're all so lovely. I wish they could all win. But how can Canadians vote to get their favourite choice into the Eurovision finals? OK, well, the voting is all online. You can start today. It's on cbc.ca slash Eurovision. And there is a limit in how many times you can vote. You can vote once a day and a total of 10 votes across this process. the last time you can vote. Again, end of November 5th is your last chance to vote. And then we have to wait a little while before we find out who actually wins. That we'll learn in December. Makda, thank you. CBC Senior Entertainment Reporter Makda Gabriela Salsa