Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019


Australia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel. The Australian broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service was represented by the song “Zero Gravity” performed by Kate Miller-Heidke, which was chosen in the national final Eurovision – Australia Decides.

Background

Australia debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in by invitation from the European Broadcasting Union as a "one-off" special guest to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Eurovision. On 17 November 2015, the EBU announced that SBS had been invited to participate in the 2016 contest and that Australia would once again take part.
In 2015, Australia was guaranteed a spot in the final of the contest and was allowed to vote during both semi-finals and the final. For 2016, Australia would have to qualify for the final from one of two semi-finals and could only vote in the semi-final in which the nation was competing. Dami Im sang Sound of Silence and finished second in the 2016 contest.
In 2018, Australia was represented by Jessica Mauboy and the song "We Got Love". The country ended in twentieth place in the grand final with 99 points.

Before Eurovision

''Eurovision – Australia Decides''

On 14 October 2018, SBS announced that for the first time, they would hold a national final to select the Australian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel. The Eurovision – Australia Decides national final took place at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre on 8 and 9 February 2019, with a jury preview show, matinee preview show and live TV final, hosted by Myf Warhurst and Joel Creasey. The winner was determined via the combination of a public televote and the votes of a professional jury panel.

Competing entries

On 14 October 2018, SBS announced an open submission for interested songwriters to submit their songs. The submission period lasted until 4 November 2018. Over seven hundred entries were submitted to SBS before the deadline expired. SBS announced the first set of participants for the national final on 2 December 2018 the second set on 18 December and the third and final set on 18 January 2019.

Format

The Jury voted based on the performance of each act from a special preview show, which occurred the night prior to the main broadcast. The five jurors voted by ranking each act in the style of the Final Eurovision Competition - with 12 points being given to the juror’s favourite act, 10 points to the second favourite, 8 to the third favourite and so on to the least favourite receiving 1 point. This resulted in 58 points being allocated by each juror and 290 being allocated by the jury as a whole. The jury consisted of:
For the televote, Australia's total votes cast by the Australia public was divided by 290 to determine the number of votes that would equal 1 point. The vote total of each act was divided by this value to determine and be rounded up to the nearest whole number to determine the points received by each act. This rounding could result in slightly more than 290 points being awarded by the public.
In the event that there is a tie in point totals, the tie will break in favour of the act with the higher number of votes from Australia’s vote. In the unlikely event the vote number from Australia’s Vote be identical, the Jury’s vote is used as the further tie-breaker.

Results

Promotion

Kate Miller-Heidke made several appearances across Europe & Australia to specifically promote "Zero Gravity" as the Australian Eurovision entry. On 6 April, she performed during the Eurovision in Concert event at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, hosted by Cornald Maas and Marlayne, to over 4500 spectators. Miller-Heidke also gave several promotional interviews to Australian media outlets prior to the competition.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Australia was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.
Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Australia was set to perform in position 12, following the entry from Georgia and preceding the entry from Iceland.

Semi-final

Australia performed twelfth in the first semi-final, following the entry from Georgia and preceding the entry from Iceland. At the end of the show, they were announced as one of the ten countries to qualify for the grand final, keeping their perfect qualification record intact. After the show, Kate appeared at a press conference with the other nine finalists to draw which half of the final she would participate in. Australia was drawn to compete in the second half. It was later revealed that Australia won the first semi-final, scoring 261 points, 140 points from the televoting and 121 points from the juries.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results will be released shortly after the grand final.

Points awarded to Australia

Points awarded by Australia

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Australian jury: