Australia at the Eurovision Song Contest

Balance sheet

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Broadcasting company

First participation

2015

Number of participations

5 (as of 2019)

Highest ranking

2 ( 2016 )

Highest Score

511 (2016)

Lowest Score

99 ( 2018 )

Points average (since first post)

252.60 (as of 2019)

Average points per voting country in the 12-point system

3.60 (as of 2019)

This article looks at the history of Australia as a participant in the Eurovision Song Contest .

Regularity of participation and successes in competition

Dami was Australia's most successful participant to date in 2016

Australia came into contact with the competition as early as 1983 when the competition was broadcast there for the first time. Since then, the competition has been broadcast regularly in Australia without the country even participating. In 2013 , on the 30th anniversary of the first broadcast of the competition in Australia, the country was mentioned for the first time in a Eurovision broadcast. So a short video of SBS with the title was during the live transmission of the first semi-final Greetings from Australia (dt .: Greetings from Australia ) recorded by the Australian Euro Vision commentator Julia Zemiro explained why Australia follow the ESC with so much interest. In 2014 , Australia was allowed to enter the Eurovision stage for the first time. During the break of the second semi-final, the Australian singer Jessica Mauboy had an out-of-competition appearance as an interval act on the mediation of the Australian television station SBS . In 2015, Australia made its debut as a participant.

Finally, in February 2015 , the EBU announced that Australia would make its debut in the competition. The country received an invitation from the EBU because the competition has been broadcast there since 1983 and is very popular there. Australia qualified directly for the final and were allowed to vote in both semifinals. Initially, it was planned that Australia would have had to win the competition in Vienna in order to participate in 2016. The competition would then have taken place in Europe. After Guy Sebastian only finished 5th in the final, it was initially unclear whether the country would participate again in 2016. In May 2015, Jon Ola Sand , Executive Supervisor of the ESC, said that the ESC Reference Group was debating whether to allow countries outside the EBU to participate, but that the competition would in any case be held in Europe. On November 17, 2015, the EBU finally announced that Australia would be allowed to participate for the second time in a row in 2016. This time it had to qualify for the final in a semi-final. The singer Dami Im took part in the second semi-final and was able to win it. In the final, she brought Australia to second place, also as the winner of the jury voting, which is Australia's best result so far. With a score of 511 points, she also achieved Australia's highest score in the competition to date. After this success, the country also participated in 2017.

In 2017 the singer Isaiah, like his predecessor, reached the final for Australia. With 9th place Australia secured its third place in the top ten in a row, but only two points came from the spectators (from Denmark), the remaining 171 points from the juries. Despite this, Australia also took part in 2018. After an internal selection of the singer Jessica Mauboy , who already appeared as an Interval act in Copenhagen in 2014, she also reached the finals. There Mauboy only finished 20th with 99 points, and her entry received the fewest televoting points. To date, this is the country's worst placement in the competition. Participation was also announced for 2019, before it was announced in February 2019 that Australia would participate in the ESC at least until 2023. With Kate Miller-Heidke, an Australian interpreter also appeared in 2019. She won the first semi-final and came in 9th in the final.

In total, four of the five entries ended up in the left half of the table. Since 2018, after Azerbaijan, Romania and Russia failed to reach the finals, Australia, along with Ukraine, have been the only countries in the competition that have qualified for the finals every time they participate. With a second place and only one placement outside the top ten, Australia is one of the most successful participants in the competition.

List of posts

Color legend: - 1st place. - 2nd place. - 3rd place. - Equal points with last place. - Eliminated in the semifinals / in the qualification / in the Eastern European preliminary decision. - no participation / not qualified. - Cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest.      

year	Interpreter	Song Music (M) and Text (T)	language	translation	final		Semi-final / qualification		National preliminary decision
					space	Points	space	Points
2015	Guy Sebastian	Tonight Again M / T: Guy Sebastian , David Ryan Harris, Louis Schoorl	English	Tonight again	5/27	196	Direct qualification At the invitation of the EBU		internal selection
2016	Dami Im	Sound of Silence M / T: DNA (David Musumeci, Anthony Egizii)	English	Sound of silence	2 / 26th	511	1/18	330	internal selection
2017	Isaiah Firebrace	Don't Come Easy M / T: DNA (David Musumeci, Anthony Egizii), Michael Angelo	English	It's not easy	9/26	173	6/18	160	internal selection
2018	Jessica Mauboy	We Got Love M: DNA (David Musumeci, Anthony Egizii); T: DNA (David Musumeci, Anthony Egizii), Jessica Mauboy	English	We have love	20/26	99	4/18	212	internal selection
2019	Kate Miller-Heidke	Zero Gravity M: Kate Miller-Heidke , Keir Nuttall, Julian Hamilton; T: Kate Miller-Heidke , Keir Nuttall	English	No gravity	9/26	284	1/17	261	Eurovision 2019: Australia Decides
2020	Montaigne	Don't Break Me M / T: Montaigne , DNA (David Musumeci, Anthony Egizii)	English	Don't break me	Cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic by the EBU				Eurovision 2020: Australia Decides
2021	Montaigne								internal selection

National preliminary decisions

Up to and including 2018, the broadcaster SBS determined all performers with their respective songs internally. Guy Sebastian's Australian contribution was presented on March 16, 2015. Dami Im was announced as the Australian representative for the ESC 2016 on March 3, 2016, her song was then released a week later, on March 10, 2016. Isaiah was announced as the Australian representative with his song in early March 2017 , Jessica Mauboy on December 11, 2017.

On February 9, 2019, Australia's first public preliminary decision, Eurovision 2019: Australia Decides , took place. Kate Miller-Heidke won this with her song Zero Gravity . On February 8, 2020, Montaigne won the second edition of the preliminary decision, Eurovision 2020: Australia Decides , with their song Don't Break Me .

In early April 2020 it was announced that Montaigne will represent Australia in 2021 after the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 has been canceled .

languages

Australia, along with Azerbaijan and the United Kingdom , is one of the three countries that presented all of its contributions in English .

List of commentators and points speakers

This list of commentators and points speakers begins when television broadcasts begin in Australia.

year	Commentators	Points speaker
1983-2000	Comment via BBC	No participation
2001	Mary Coustas (commented in the role of Effie )
2002	Comment via BBC
2003-2004	Of manganese
2005-2008	Comment via BBC
2009-2014	Julia Zemiro Sam Pang
2015-2016	Julia Zemiro Sam Pang	Lee Lin Chin
2017	Myf Warhurst Joel Creasey
2018		Ricardo Gonçalves
2019		Electric Fields
2020	Competition canceled

Scoring

The following countries received the most points from or awarded the most points to Australia (as of 2019):

Most of the points awarded in the final space country Points 1  Sweden 56 2  Belgium 34 3  Bulgaria 31 4th  Israel 30th 5  Moldova 29  United Kingdom 29

Most in the final received points space country Points 1  Sweden 65 2  Iceland 56 3  Poland 54 4th  United Kingdom 53 5  Denmark 52

Most of the points awarded space country Points 1  Sweden 104 2  Moldova 71 3  Belgium 70 4th  Israel 53 5  Bulgaria 49

Most total obtained points space country Points 1  Poland 115 2  Sweden 96 3  Iceland 94 4th  Denmark 92 5  Belgium 89

Award of the highest rating

Since 2015, Australia has given the highest number of points to six different countries, including three to Sweden. In the semifinals, however, Australia awarded the maximum number of points to eight different countries, two of them Belgium and Sweden.

Highest rating (final) year country Place (final) 2015  Sweden 1 2016  Belgium (J&T) 10 2017  United Kingdom (J) 15th  Moldova (T) 3 2018  Sweden (J) 7th  Israel (T) 1 2019  Sweden (J) 5  Norway (T) 6th 2020 Competition canceled

Highest rating (semi-finals) year country Place (semifinals) 2015  Serbia (first semifinal) 9  Sweden (second semifinals) 1 2016  Belgium (J&T) 3 2017  Poland (J) 9  Moldova (T) 2 2018  Sweden (J) 2  Denmark (T) 5 2019  Czech Republic (J) 2  Iceland (T) 3 2020 Competition canceled

various

• Australia was the only country that had awarded the highest rating (12 points) in the ESC shows more than twice before 2016, as Australia was allowed to vote in both semi-finals and the final in 2015 . Since 2016, all countries have given the highest rating four times.
• From 2010 to 2014, Australia held its own audience vote every year. The result did not influence the final result, but it did show who the Australian audience would have chosen.

Impressions

• 

  Guy Sebastian 2015

• 

  Isaiah 2017

• 

  Jessica Mauboy 2018

• 

  Kate Miller-Heidke 2019

Web links

• Dean Vuletic: The Eurovision Song Contest, From Australia to Austria (part 1) . April 30, 2014; accessed on February 12, 2015

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Yasmin Jeffery: Eurovision 2019: Why is Australia still in the song contest and what would happen if we won? In: abc.net.au. May 15, 2019, accessed on September 21, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Jessica Mauboy on eurovision.tv; accessed on February 12, 2015
3. ^ Dean Vuletic: The Eurovision Song Contest, From Australia to Austria (part 1) . April 30, 2014; accessed on February 12, 2015
4. ↑ eurovision.tv
5. ↑ escxtra.com
6. ↑ Douze Points: Reference Group decision: Australia will be part of the ESC until 2023. February 13, 2019, accessed on February 13, 2019 (German). 
7. ↑ eurofire.blog.de ( Memento of the original from February 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ Douze Points: Australia Decides 2019: Who is your favorite? February 6, 2019, accessed on February 13, 2019 (German). 
9. ↑ Douze Points: ESC-Barometer: How do you like the Australian contribution "Zero Gravity" by Kate Miller-Heidke? February 9, 2019, accessed on February 13, 2019 (German).