Because the contest welcomes participants from active members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). While this does primarily serve European countries, other locations are also members of it. This includes Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. Associate members include countries like Australia, Canada, China, Georgia, New Zealand, Syria and the United States of America. This means that, theoretically, all of those countries can submit, and in several circumstances have submitted, a song for the contest, too.