It’s the Eurovision down season, and don’t you for a second think we’re going to stop speculating, arguing, and pushing our heated opinions. Our latest series looked at the national finals of Eurovision, and discussing how we would reform the national finals of Eurovision. This time we’re creating national finals from scratch; continuing with Australia.
In part twelve of this series Daniel, Angus, and Kittens discuss how they’d create a national final for Australia.
Do we think that they will return to a national final, and would we want that?
Daniel
Eventually they’ll run out of Australia Decides alumni, so they might have to. In all seriousness though, not if ABC’s funding remains the way it is. I’d like to see an Australian selection, but I’m a realist (some of the time, at least) so I’m not expecting much.
Angus
I don’t know why, but a part of me feels like Australia is getting closer and closer to not returning to Eurovision in the near future. They’ll send two or three more AD alumni and unless there is massive success, that might be it. I do hope they stay in the contest, and would love to see them return to a NF format if they do.
Kittens
PLEASE, go back to a selection. The last few years have been…good, but they need to see more fresh talent. I miss the old Australian selections, even when it did involve getting up at 7am on a Saturday morning. I really feel it would kickstart a refresh for Australia in the contest, and it really does need one recently.
What would our dream national final look like?
Daniel
Australia is bloody huge, yet all three editions of the contest were held in the same place, Gold Coast. Spread the love about a bit and host it in multiple places across the continent sized nation.
Here comes the ballsy bit. 16 songs, two from each of Australia’s and internal territories (obviously excluding JBT) – selected by a public vote from a shortlist collated by each state/territory’s devolved ABC affiliated broadcaster. Put a song from each of their pairs into one of two semi finals, hosted in two cities different to both one another and the destination for the final, where the top 4 from the ol’ faithful jury-televote mix qualify for the final of a new competition with a far better name than “Australia Decides” – which is rubbish.
Fairly standard from this point on, get yourself a European jury to remind the Aussies they’re pretending to be European, whack them next to a proportional televote and get ready to congratulate someone from a previous edition, probably Jaguar Jonze, on winning the national final.
Angus
I love the idea of the regional representation, but I much prefer the idea of having individual heats for each region. Have a mini contest in each, and 1 song from each makes it through to the final which can then be held in the familiar Gold Coast location. The final can consist of 10 songs if we want the heats to be televote only while adding two jury wildcard spots. To stop ABC from playing it too safe, get someone working at triple j involved to help select some exciting names, be they established or up-and-coming. Sprinkle in some extra chaos, I’m sure Australian TV producers can cook up some absurd but harmless nonsense to add to the event. Produce it well like ABC definitely should be able to, and you have a fun national final that highlights every corner of Australia and a variety of genres.
Kittens
Australia LOVES Eurovision, we know this. They can absolutely make this a big event. I’d love to see the idea of area-based tour/contests as above, but even just going back to one singular big event as a starter would be a nice resumption.
Australia has a good music scene with a lot of different types of music. So there shouldn’t be a problem getting artists, and a nice little (very sleepy) international jury alongside it and a local jury, with the televote as well. Nice and simple, but I’m sure the Australians would do almost everything with big aplomb and fanfare – which makes it even better. Production wise, they definitely won’t have issues – so go wild and go big and use that Australian Eurofan frenzy!
Australia’s Eurovision Journey
The most recent country to debut into the Eurovision Song Contest, Australia debuted in 2015. Guy Sebastian represented the land down under with his entry “Tonight Again” in Vienna, where they placed 5th. Since their debut, they have participated every single year of the competition.
Australia internally selected Electric Fields to represent them in 2024 with the song “One Milkali (One Blood)”. The band ultimately failed to reach the Grand Final, placing eleventh in the first semifinal with 41 televote points.
What do you think about our reforms? As always, let us know what you think by commenting down below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Bluesky for all the latest Eurovision news!
News Source: That Eurovision Site
Photo Credit: Corinne Cumming / EBU
Tim J