Australia at the Eurovision Song Contest

Is it Tonight Again?

The Eurovision Song Contest, which began in Switzerland in 1956, has long been popular in Australia. Its initial popularity was boosted by a wave of migrants from southern, eastern and northern Europe settling in Australia in the 1950s and 60s. But knowledge of the contest grew exponentially in the 1970s during the time of ABBAmania in Australia.

The Swedish quartet had their international breakthrough after winning the contest in 1974 with 'Waterloo' (incidentally beating Olivia Newton-John's performance of 'Long Live Love', which finished fourth). SBS began screening the contest in 1983, in the channel's third year of broadcasting, and it built a steady following.

After Jessica Mauboy performed as an interval act at the second Eurovision semi-final at Copenhagen in 2014, Australia was invited to perform in the grand final of the 60th contest, in Vienna in 2015. Guy Sebastian was our first official selection and he did Australia proud, with 'Tonight Again' finishing in the Top 5, as you can see in this news report from May 2015:

As a launching pad for its artists, Eurovision has as big a reach as ever. The 2022 contest had an estimated television audience of over 160 million people in Europe. Italian rockers Måneskin won the contest in 2021 and conquered the global charts with their follow-up releases.

Other recent entries – like 'Arcade' by Duncan Laurence (representing the Netherlands, 2019, 1st place) and 'Snap' by Rosa Linn (Armenia, 2022, 20th) – exploded in popularity after finding a new audience through TikTok.

Back in 2015, this NITV news story reports the immediate boost that Guy Sebastian's performance had on sales of 'Tonight Again', which landed in the Top 10 everywhere from Estonia to the Bahamas:

The Sound of Success

Australia's best result to date came in Stockholm in 2016 when Dami Im placed first in the Second Semi-Final, topped the Grand Final jury vote and came second overall with 'Sound of Silence'.

This news story reports on the night and Dami's 'sensational' performance:

Into the stratosphere

Australia achieved a third consecutive Top 10 result (out of 42 countries) at the 2017 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine when proud Yorta Yorta and Gunditjmara man Isaiah Firebrace finished 9th with his song 'Don't Come Easy'.

Two years later, in Tel Aviv, Kate Miller-Heidke's performance of 'Zero Gravity' saw Australia take their staging game to another level. Like Dami Im, Miller-Heidke qualified first in her semi-final. While Australian entries have benefited from strong jury support, winning over the partisan popular European vote has been more challenging. As this report and discussion on Sunrise the next morning shows, she had to settle for 9th place in the Grand Final:

Our Eurovision Voyage continues

In 2023, Australia sent Perth progressive metal band Voyager to Liverpool in the UK (hosting on behalf of 2022 winners Ukraine) to compete with 'Promise'. Sydney-based Andrew Lambrou also brought an Australian flavour to the European stage, representing Cyprus with 'Break a Broken Heart'.

Voyager won Semi-Final 2 and came 9th at the Grand Final on 13 May in Europe (the morning of 14 May in Australia), while Andrew Lambrou placed 7th in Semi-final 2 and a respectable 12th overall (out of 26 countries) in the Grand Final.

Main image: Danny Estrin (on vocals) and Ashley Doodkorte (drums) during Voyager's second rehearsal performance of 'Promise' on the Eurovision Song Contest stage in Liverpool, UK on 5 May 2023. Photo: Chloe Hashemi and EBU.