The ocean country has been presented at Eurovision 2023 with the band Voyager and their song ‘Promise’, which will close the second semi-final in Liverpool
As its name indicates, the Eurovision Song Contest is a televised music competition in which European countries participate; In particular, representatives whose countries are members of the European Broadcasting Union. Other countries that are not part of the old continent also participate in each edition. In 2023, for example, Armenia, Azerbaijan or Israel are some of the foreign competitors. What is particularly surprising, however, is the 2015 participation of a country located at the antipodes of Europe, more than 14,000 kilometers away. Year after year many people have the same question. Why is Australia participating in Eurovision?
As established in the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest, the right to participate in the contest does not respond to geographical issues, but to the fact that the country is an active member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an organization consisting of countries. Included are, in the case of non-Europeans, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Jordan, Israel or Morocco, to name a few examples. Similarly, the rules also allow participation in Eurovision by non-European countries that are not members of the EBU, provided they receive an invitation, as is the case with Australia.
Australia’s background in Eurovision
Despite the distance, oceanic country veterans have been attracted to Eurovision since 1983, when Australian public television began broadcasting the festival, always receiving good viewership data.
There are precedents in the past as well. Famous Australian actress and singer Olivia Newton-John represented the United Kingdom at Eurovision 1974 (she had dual nationality) with the song Long Live Love, finishing in fourth place. The same steps were taken by her compatriot Gina Gee in 1996, when the singer was the British representative when she moved to the Old Continent barely three years ago.
But Australia’s real Eurovision story begins in 2014, when the country was invited to take the stage during the second semi-final half-time break; Despite not being selected for the scores, Jessica Mauboy’s performance of her theme Sea of Flags was a complete success in both Europe and Oceania, where the festival was watched by 2.7 million viewers.
A year later, the Australian team received a new invitation, this time to participate in the contest to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Eurovision. Guy Sebastian, with the song Tonight Again, progressed directly to the final, finishing in fifth place.
Despite the fact that it was an invitation to a single edition, the truth is that the link between Australia and Eurovision lasted until at least 2023. And the country hasn’t missed the appointment since then.
His biggest success was the second place achieved by Dummy im in Stockholm in 2016 and the first place in the qualifying stage. In addition, it is also worth noting the fifth place in 2015 and two ninth places in 2017 and 2019.
With Eurovision 2020 canceled due to the pandemic, Australia has had its worst ever result in 2021. It did not pass past the qualifying round and fell in the semi-final round of the edition held in Turin (Italy) with fourteenth place.
Last year, Australia had to be content with a 15th-place finish (125 points) by Sheldon Riley with Not the Same.
Australia in Eurovision 2023
Australia performs in Liverpool, the venue for Eurovision 2023, with the band Voyager and their song Promise, which will close the second semi-final, to be held on Thursday, 11 May at 9:00 pm (LA 1).
What if Australia wins Eurovision?
The Eurovision Song Contest was first televised in Australia in 1983, but little did anyone imagine at the time that almost three decades later, an Australian public channel artist or group could dream of victory on their tours of Europe .
It happens that within the European Broadcasting Union the public channel serves as an affiliate member of the SBS entity, but with the current rules it cannot organize the contest in its home country if it wins an edition. Thus, in 2016, the Australian government signed an agreement with the Icelandic series so that it would co-host the next edition of Eurovision in Iceland in the event of an Australian victory.
