Australia has been invited to join ‘the world’s biggest party’ as the Eurovision Song is known, and put forward our own entrant for the 60th anniversary of the traditionally European song competition.
The landmark decision comes the year after Jess Mauboy gave a stellar performance as the ambassador for Australia in a special-guest spot at the 2014 Eurovision Contest, in front of a global audience of over 125 million.
This time though it won’t simply be a guest-spot, but Australia will actually be competing alongside the other European nations as a wildcard entrant.
While this is the first time we’ve officially competed as a nation, Aussies are no strangers to participating in the contest. Olivia Newton-John, Gina G. and the New Seekers all having taken part as representatives of the UK.
Indeed, the song contest has gained a dedicated following in Australia where last year over 3 million people watched the final.
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The executive supervisor of the Eurovision song contest at the European Broadcasting Union, Jon Ola Sand, said: “At the very heart of the Eurovision Song Contest is the importance of bringing countries together to celebrate diversity, music and culture.”
He continued on to say that it would be remiss to “throw the world’s biggest party,” celebrating it’s 60 birthday without inviting “the show’s Australian friends.”
Jessica onstage at Eurovision 2014 representing Australia in a special guest appearance.
Eurovision never fails to captivate with its fabulously flamboyant performances, over-the-top production-values and the performers’ occasionally-terrible but always entertaining musical abilities.
Last year’s winner (pictured top) was the famous bearded-lady Conchita Wurst, who will appear again at this year’s show, performing the winning song ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’ again.
So who will Australia’s 2015 entrant be? That is yet to be decided, but remains in the hand of TV Network SBS who have been the broadcaster and champions of the contest down-under for many years.
How they’ll pick the Aussie ambassador remains to be seen but they may follow in the footsteps of the BBC in the UK, who have previously opened it up to a viewers’ vote. The Australian entrant will also be given a guaranteed spot in the final, joining this year’s host-nation Austria and Europe’s “big five” nations – the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
The Eurovision song contest will take place in Vienna, held over five days from 19TH -23rd May and broadcast on SBS. We look forward to seeing who the Aussie ambassador will be!
