| Australia | |
| Contest: | ESC |
| Member Station: | Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) |
| Esc Apps: | 9 (7 finals) |
| Esc Best: | 2nd: |
| Related: | Eurovision – Australia Decides |
| Website: | SBS page Eurovision – Australia Decides website |
| Current: | 2024 |
Australia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest nine times since its debut in . The Australian participant broadcaster in the contest is the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) who received special approval from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to participate. Australia is the only country outside the European Broadcasting Area to have ever competed in Eurovision.
Australia has been in the top ten five times, with its best result being a second-place finish with "Sound of Silence" performed by Dami Im in, followed by "Tonight Again" by Guy Sebastian finishing fifth in 2015 and "Don't Come Easy" by Isaiah, "Zero Gravity" by Kate Miller-Heidke, and "Promise" by Voyager finishing ninth in,, and respectively.
Initially, Australia's participation in the 2015 contest was set to be a one-off event, the plan being only to perform again the following year had it won, but it was confirmed in November 2015 by SVT that it would participate in the,[1] and it has participated every year since.[2]
The contest attracts a significantly high viewership for SBS, and has a broad and active national fanbase. Due to time differences with the European host cities, the event typically airs at 05:00 Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST). The contest receives widespread mainstream media coverage in the country,[3] [4] [5] and also enjoys a cult following amongst dedicated fans each year.
Australian broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an associated member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It first broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest in and has continued to do so every year since. The contest has attracted a strong viewing audience in Australia. Early broadcasts of the contest in the country either featured no commentary or borrowed the BBC's commentary. In, actress and comedian Mary Coustas provided commentary for the contest performing as her comedic character Effie. In and, SBS presenter Des Mangan provided commentary for the Australian audience. From, Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang were assigned as commentators for the competition by SBS.[6] [7] saw SBS replace the commentators with comedian Joel Creasey and TV and radio personality Myf Warhurst. In addition to broadcasting the contest, SBS also broadcast the 50th and 60th anniversary programmes.
From 2010 to 2014, SBS allowed Australian viewers to participate in their own televote for the final.[8] However, these votes were not counted at the actual contest and did not affect the overall result. The SBS commentary team and Australian delegation were awarded a commentary booth of their own at the 2012 contest in Baku. They have been allocated a commentary booth every year since.
Australia's first appearance in the international broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest occurred on 14 May 2013 during the first semi-final in Malmö, Sweden. A short pre-recorded video titled "Greetings from Australia" (also referred to as "Why Australia Loves Eurovision"), submitted by SBS and hosted by Julia Zemiro, was broadcast during the interval acts.[9] This presentation marked 30 years of broadcasting the Eurovision Song Contest in Australia, and was preceded the week leading up to the contest by a locally broadcast documentary, also hosted by Zemiro, titled The Heart of Eurovision.[10] On 24 March 2014, the Danish host broadcaster DR gave SBS permission to perform as an interval act in the second semi-final of the contest. One day later, on 25 March, Jessica Mauboy was internally selected to perform.[11] On 8 May 2014, Mauboy sang her song "Sea of Flags".[12]
SBS made its debut at the 2015 contest with the song "Tonight Again", performed by Guy Sebastian. Although Australia is outside the European Broadcasting Area and SBS is not a full member of the EBU, the EBU and Austrian host broadcaster ORF decided to permit an Australian entry to commemorate the 60th contest. The special circumstances surrounding Australia's entry and "to not reduce the chances" of the semi-final participants led the organisers to allow Australia to compete directly in the final, without going through a semi-final.[13] In the event that Australia should win the contest, the EBU had confirmed that in accordance with the rules, SBS would not host the following contest in the Southern Hemisphere, and instead would co-host the event with a full member of the EBU in the country of the latter.[14] Further to the EBU's statement, it was confirmed that 's participating broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) would be the first choice, and the 's British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) would be the back-up should NDR decline.[14]
Although Australia's participation in 2015 was announced as a one-off event, it was confirmed on 17 November 2015 that Australia would participate in the 2016 contest. Unlike in 2015, Australia did not receive automatic qualification.[15] On 7 October 2015, it was announced that Australia would make its debut in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015 after SBS was invited to perform in the contest.[16] The Australian entry for the 2016 contest was "Sound of Silence" by Dami Im, which won the second semi-final before finishing second overall behind Ukraine.[17]
Australia continued its participation at the 2017 contest following their success the previous year.[18] On 7 March 2017, at the Paris Cat Jazz Club in Melbourne, SBS announced former X Factor Australia winner Isaiah Firebrace as Australia's entry. With the song "Don't Come Easy", Isaiah participated in the first semi-final on 9 May, then qualified for the final on 13 May in which Australia placed 9th.[19]
Australia competed in the 2018 contest, selecting Jessica Mauboy as the artist to represent the country with "We Got Love".[20] [21] Although this continued Australia's track record of perfect attendance in the final, it was the first instance of them not finishing in the top ten, ending in 20th place with 99 points, only nine of which came from the televote, the first time that Australia finished last in the televote.
In 2019, it was announced that for the first time, Australian viewers would be given the opportunity to choose their Eurovision representative. The Eurovision - Australia Decides national final took place on 9 February 2019, with a 50/50 say between an Australian jury and a televote to determine who would represent the country at the 2019 contest. Eurovision – Australia Decides was hosted in Gold Coast, Queensland by Myf Warhurst and Joel Creasey.[22] The winner was Kate Miller-Heidke with the song "Zero Gravity". Runners-up Electric Fields were selected as the Australian jury spokespersons. Ahead of the contest in Tel Aviv, Israel, Australia's participation in the contest was confirmed by the EBU and SBS until 2023. Australia went on to finish ninth in the final, after winning the first semi-final.
SBS announced it would host Eurovision – Australia Decides – Gold Coast 2020 to choose their representative for the 2020 contest. The event was held on the Gold Coast from 7–8 February, and Montaigne with "Don't Break Me" emerged as the winner.[23] Following the cancellation of the 2020 contest, SBS internally selected Montaigne to represent Australia in the 2021 contest, this time with "Technicolour".[24] For the first time since its 2015 debut, Australia failed to qualify for the final, finishing 14th in the first semi-final with 28 points.[25]
Eurovision – Australia Decides returned to select the Australian entry for the 2022 contest.[26] The show took place on 26 February, and was won by Sheldon Riley with the song "Not the Same". At the contest in Turin, Italy, Australia went on to finish in 15th place in the final with 125 points, after finishing in second place in the second semi-final with 243 points.[27]
For the 2023 contest, SBS internally selected Voyager, who had finished runner-up in Eurovision – Australia Decides the year prior, to represent the country with the song "Promise".[28] They qualified for the final, which took place on 13 May, and finished ninth overall with 151 points.[29] On 21 September 2023, SBS was revealed to be discussing its participation beyond 2023,[30] and Australia ultimately appeared on the official list of participants for the 2024 contest on 5 December 2023.[31] Electric Fields were internally selected to represent the country in 2024 with "One Milkali (One Blood)", but failed to qualify for the final, finishing 11th in the first semi-final with 41 points.
| 1 | First place | |||
| 2 | Second place | - | 3 | Third place |
| ◁ | Last place--> | |||
| X | Entry selected but did not compete | |||
| Year | Artist | Song | Language | Final | Points | Semi | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guy Sebastian | "Tonight Again" | English | style=text-align:center; | 5 | 196 | colspan="2" | ||
| Dami Im | "Sound of Silence" | English | 2 | 511 | 1 | 330 | ||
| Isaiah | "Don't Come Easy" | English | style=text-align:center; | 9 | 173 | 6 | 160 | |
| Jessica Mauboy | "We Got Love" | English | style=text-align:center; | 20 | 99 | 4 | 212 | |
| Kate Miller-Heidke | "Zero Gravity" | English | style=text-align:center; | 9 | 284 | 1 | 261 | |
| Montaigne | "Don't Break Me" | English | Contest cancelled X | |||||
| Montaigne | "Technicolour" | English | Failed to qualify | 14 | 28 | |||
| Sheldon Riley | "Not the Same" | English | style=text-align:center; | 15 | 125 | 2 | 243 | |
| Voyager | "Promise" | English | style=text-align:center; | 9 | 151 | 1 | 149 | |
| Electric Fields | "One Milkali (One Blood)" | English, Yankunytjatjara | Failed to qualify | style=text-align:center; | 11 | 41 | ||
| Year | Award | Song | Composer(s) | Performer | width=45px | Final | width=45px | Points | Host city | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Composer Award | "Sound of Silence" | Anthony Egizii, David Musumeci | Dami Im | 2 | 511 |  Stockholm | [32] | |||
| Artistic Award | "Zero Gravity" | Kate Miller-Heidke, Keir Nuttall, Julian Hamilton | Kate Miller-Heidke | 9 | 284 |  Tel Aviv | [33] |
Each participating broadcaster in the Eurovision Song Contest assigns a head of delegation as the EBU's contact person and the leader of their delegation at the event. The delegation, whose size can greatly vary, includes a head of press, the performers, songwriters, composers, and backing vocalists, among others.[35]
| Year | Head of delegation | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| – | Paul Clarke | ||
| – | Josh Martin | ||
| – | Emily Griggs |
Each participating broadcaster assembles a five-member jury panel consisting of music industry professionals for the semi-finals and final of the Eurovision Song Contest (since 2023 juries only vote in the final), ranking all entries except for their own. The juries' votes add 50% to the overall result alongside televoting.[36]
| Year | Jury members | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [37] | |||||||
| [38] | |||||||
| [39] | |||||||
| [40] | |||||||
| [41] | |||||||
| [42] | |||||||
| [43] | |||||||
| Andrew Farriss | Toni Pearen | Eddie Perfect | Brihony Dawson | Latifa Tee | [44] | ||
| Year | Commentator | Spokesperson | |
|---|---|---|---|
| rowspan="17" | |||
| – | |||
| – | |||
| Effie (Mary Coustas) | [45] | ||
| Des Mangan | [46] | ||
| [47] | |||
| [48] | |||
| [49] | |||
| [50] | |||
| [51] | |||
| [52] | |||
| [53] | |||
| [54] | |||
| [55] | |||
| [56] [57] | |||
| [58] [59] |
Although not actively participating at the Eurovision Song Contest prior to the 2014 semi-final interval presentation, Australia has appeared in the contest incidentally in a number of ways: