Australia returns to Eurovision

AUSTRALIA will return to the Eurovision Song Contest next year Stockholm.

Unlike this year, Australia won’t be given a bye to the Grand Final. They will have to qualify via the Semis earlier in Eurovision Week to join the Big 5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom) and Sweden in the Grand Final on Saturday 14^th May 2016. They’ll also only be able to vote in the Semi-Final they participate in this time around.

The 2015 contest in Vienna saw Australia participate for the first time to celebrate Eurovision’s 60^th anniversary. Guy Sebastian’s Tonight Again received an impressive 196 points, earning Australia fifth place and 12 points from hosts Austria and winners Sweden.

No announcement has been made regarding who will represent Australia next year.

Opinion

Australia’s participation in Vienna was meant to be a one-off unless they won. But given that Australia has such a large Eurovision fanbase it seemed unfair to me at the time to only give them one shot at it.

What concerns me is what Jon Ola Sand, Eurovision’s Executive Supervisor, has said about more non-European nations taking part: “We strongly believe the Eurovision Song Contest has the potential to evolve organically into a truly global event. Australia’s continued participation is an exciting step in that direction. It remains to be seen what such an event may look like in the long run.”

Now I’m all for having as many nations in Eurovision as possible, but can we please work on getting European nations who haven’t participated yet to participate. For example, Liechtenstein.

But if we are to have nations like Canada, China or New Zealand in future contests; I feel there should be a limit on two per year (one in each Semi) or give them their own separate qualifier.

As for Australia next year, it will be one tough act to follow.

Who Australia voted for in 2015

Points	Semi-Final 1	Semi-Final 2	Grand Final
12	Serbia	Sweden	Sweden
10	Russia	Latvia	Russia
8	Belgium	Norway	Italy
7	Georgia	Israel	Latvia
6	Greece	Cyprus	Belgium
5	Estonia	Slovenia	Serbia
4	Denmark	Lithuania	Norway
3	Macedonia	Malta GC	Estonia
2	Hungary	Azerbaijan	Israel
1	Romania	Poland	Georgia

Nations in Italics didn’t advance to the Final.