Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest
Australia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest five times since their debut in 2015 and has been in the top ten four times. They are the second country outside of the Eurasia region with Morocco competing in the 1980 contest. The country's best result in the contest is a second-place finish for Dami Im in. Australia also finished in the top ten in three of its other appearances in the contest, with Guy Sebastian finishing fifth in 2015, and both Isaiah Firebrace and Kate Miller-Heidke finishing ninth in and 2019.
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 they won, but it was confirmed in November 2015 by SVT that they would participate in the 2016 contest. Australia's participation in the contest has been confirmed by the European Broadcasting Union and Special Broadcasting Service until 2023.
History
1983–2014
Australian broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service first broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest in 1983 and has continued to do so every year since. The contest has attracted a strong viewing audience in Australia, primarily because a significant proportion of the population have ancestry in Europe. Early broadcasts of the Contest in Australia either featured no commentary or used the 's commentary as transmitted by the BBC. 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. saw SBS replace the commentators with comedian Joel Creasey and TV and radio personality Myf Warhurst. In addition to broadcasting the contest, SBS has also broadcast the and 60th anniversary programmes.From 2010 to 2014, SBS allowed Australian viewers to participate in their own televote for the Grand Finals. 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", submitted by SBS and hosted by Julia Zemiro, was broadcast during the interval acts. 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. On 24 March 2014, the Danish broadcaster DR gave permission to SBS to perform as an interval act in the second semi-final of Eurovision Song Contest 2014. One day later, on 25 March, Jessica Mauboy was internally selected to perform. On 8 May 2014, Mauboy sang her song "Sea of Flags".
2015–present: Participation
made the country's debut at the 2015 Contest with the song "Tonight Again" a song written and performed by Guy Sebastian. Although Australia is outside the European Broadcasting Area, the European Broadcasting Union 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 grand final without pre-qualification. In the event that Australia should win the Eurovision Song Contest, the EBU had confirmed that in accordance with the rules, Australia would not host the event in the southern hemisphere, and instead would co-host the contest within a country in the EBU. Further to the EBU's statement it was confirmed that and their broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk would be the first choice, and 's broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation being the back-up hosts should Germany decline.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. On 7 October 2015, it was announced that Australia would make its debut at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015 after SBS was invited to perform in the contest. The Australian candidate for the 2016 contest was Dami Im with her song "Sound of Silence" which won the second semi final before finishing second behind Ukraine.
Australia continued its participation at the 2017 contest following their success the previous year. On 7 March 2017 at the Paris Cat Jazz Club in the city of Melbourne, Australia, SBS announced former X Factor Australia winner Isaiah Firebrace as Australia's entry into the 62nd instalment of the contest. With the song "Don't Come Easy", Isaiah participated in the first semi-final on 9 May, then the finals on 13 May in which Australia placed 9th.
Australia competed in the 2018 contest, selecting Jessica Mauboy as the artist to represent the country. 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 twentieth place with 99 points.
It was announced that for the first time, 2019 will provide Australians 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 will represent Australia at the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel. Eurovision – Australia Decides was hosted in Gold Coast, Queensland by Myf Warhurst and Joel Creasey. The winner was Kate Miller-Heidke with the song "Zero Gravity". Electric Fields, who were the runner-up in Australia Decides, were selected as the announcers of Australia's jury points. Australia finished 9th in the 2019 contest, after winning the First Semi-Final.
SBS announced it would host Eurovision – Australia Decides – Gold Coast 2020 to choose their representative for the contest. The event was held on the Gold Coast from 7–8 February. Australia's participation in the contest has been confirmed by the European Broadcasting Union and SBS until 2023.
Contestants
Other awards
Marcel Bezençon Awards
| Year | Award | Song | Composer Lyrics / Music | Performer | Final | Points | Host city | |
| Composer Award | "Sound of Silence" | Anthony Egizii, David Musumeci | Dami Im | 2 | 511 |  Stockholm | ||
| Artistic Award | "Zero Gravity" | Kate Miller-Heidke, Keir Nuttall, Julian Hamilton | Kate Miller-Heidke | 9 | 285 |  Tel Aviv |
Related involvement
Heads of delegation
The public broadcaster of each participating country 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 contestants, songwriters, composers and backing vocalists, among others.| Year | Head of delegation | |
| – | Paul Clarke | |
| Josh Martin |
Jury members
A five-member jury panel consisting of music industry professionals is made up for every participating country for the semi-finals and Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest, ranking all entries except for their own country's contribution. The juries' votes add 50% to the overall result alongside televoting.| Year | 1st member | 2nd member | 3rd member | 4th member | 5th member | |
Commentators and spokespeople
| Year | Commentator | Dual commentator | Spokesperson | |
| Effie | ||||
| Terry Wogan | ||||
| Des Mangan | ||||
| Des Mangan | ||||
| Terry Wogan | ||||
| Terry Wogan | ||||
| Terry Wogan | ||||
| Terry Wogan | ||||
| Julia Zemiro | Sam Pang | |||
| Julia Zemiro | Sam Pang | |||
| Julia Zemiro | Sam Pang | |||
| Julia Zemiro | Sam Pang | |||
| Julia Zemiro | Sam Pang | |||
| Julia Zemiro | Sam Pang | |||
| Julia Zemiro | Sam Pang | Lee Lin Chin | ||
| Julia Zemiro | Sam Pang | Lee Lin Chin | ||
| Myf Warhurst | Joel Creasey | Lee Lin Chin | ||
| Myf Warhurst | Joel Creasey | Ricardo Gonçalves | ||
| Myf Warhurst | Joel Creasey | Electric Fields |
Incidental participation
Although not actively participating at the Eurovision Song Contest prior to the 2013 semifinal interval presentation, Australia has appeared in the contest incidentally in a number of ways:- Peter Doyle and Marty Kristian, both Australians, represented the United Kingdom as part of the New Seekers, who performed "Beg, Steal or Borrow" at the 1972 contest in Edinburgh. The song, co-written by Australian Tony Cole, finished second with 114 points.
- English-born Australian singer-songwriter Olivia Newton-John represented the United Kingdom in 1974 in Brighton with the song "Long Live Love", finishing in 4th place with 14 points.
- John Farrar, who was born in Melbourne, performed as part of the Shadows for the United Kingdom at the 1975 contest.
- Martin Lee, singer in Brotherhood of Man, which won the 1976 contest, spent several years of his childhood in Australia.
- Austria paid tribute to Australia in 1977 in London with their entry "Boom Boom Boomerang" performed by Schmetterlinge. The song was considered controversial at the time due to being the first song to openly mock the contest itself.
- Johnny Logan, winner of the contest in 1980 and 1987 for Ireland, was born in Frankston, Victoria in 1954, but moved with his family back to Ireland in 1957 aged 3.
- In 1996 in Oslo, Norway, Australian singer Gina G represented the United Kingdom with her performance of "Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit".
- Jane Comerford, who was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, performed in the 2006 contest for Germany as a part of Texas Lightning with the song "No No Never", which took 14th place and 36 points.
- Australians Craig Porteils and Cameron Giles-Webb co-wrote the song "This Is Our Night" which was performed by Sakis Rouvas for Greece at the 2009 contest.
- Katrina Noorbergen, an Australian living in Berlin, co-wrote the song "A Million Voices" which was performed by Polina Gagarina for Russia at the 2015 contest. She also performed as one of Gagarina's backing singers in the contest.
- Tonino Speciale, who grew up in Western Sydney, co-wrote the song "Black Smoke" which was performed by Ann Sophie for Germany at the 2015 contest.
- Mary-Jean O'Doherty, an American-born and half-Australian opera singer, performed as part of the group Genealogy for Armenia at the 2015 contest.
- Anja Nissen, who is from the Blue Mountains of New South Wales but is the child of Danish parents, represented Denmark at the 2017 contest in Kiev, finishing in 20th place with 77 points. The song, "Where I Am", was co-written by Australian songwriters Angel Tupai and Michael D'Arcy.
- Australian singer-songwriter and Eurovision – Australia Decides 2019 competitor Alfie Arcuri co-wrote 's entry for the contest "Running", which was to be performed by Sandro Nicolas. The contest was later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Photo gallery