Australia for Eurovision 2015? Photo : australia4esc.blogspot.com
Rumour Mill – Is Australia in talks to compete at Eurovision 2015?
Well rumours and speculation don’t come bigger than this one and sources close to the EBU have told us that this is not an impossibility! This is a story that sprouted from an announcement from SBS (Australian National Broadcaster) recently when they said
“Eurovision has become one of the most popular television events in Australia. Next year is the 60th anniversary of Eurovision and with the official theme ‘Building Bridges’ already announced by host country Austria, SBS can reveal we have our Eurovision engineers Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang already working on how we can build a bridge to Vienna and join the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015.”
SBS have broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest since the 1983 and have fallen in love with the contest. It is helped by the fact that Australia has a huge European diaspora who know and follow the contest. Australia got their first taste of Eurovision participation in 2013 in Malmo when they had a post card spot on the show and then in 2014 they had Jessica Mauboy performing at the interval act.
Over the years there have been several Aussies that have participated in the contest for other countries. There was the legend that is Olivia Newton-John (UK 1974) with the song ‘Long Live Love’ that placed 4th at the contest and then 1996 when Gina G (UK) came 8th with the global smash ‘Ooh Aah… Just a Little Bit’. In 2015 there will also be the boyband JTR competing at Melodifestivalen. They maybe Swedish but they found fame in the Australian X-Factor and SVT have seen the opportunity there.
Remember that SBS is an EBU member and let’s face it the contest would be great to have a wildcard entry for the 60th edition of the show.
So tell us what you think of the idea of Australia being at Eurovision 2015 for a one off appearance?
Author/Editor in Chief Garrett Mulhall
Categories: Australia, Austria, Eurovision 2014, Eurovision 2015
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Eurovision Ireland 
Is SBS a member, or an associate? It would be very exciting for me, as an Expat Aussie, to finally see Australia compete officially…but I’m still in the doubters camp with this one.
Hi Lisa – they are an associate
That is why we kept it to the “Rumour Mill” category but we were told bu a Delegation member that it was being discussed
How would this work with the time difference? SBS don’t normally screen Eurovision live – they delay it until the following evening. If broadcast live, the final would start at 5am on a Sunday morning! Strewth!
Maybe they could employ delayed voting? Like, allow the Australian public to vote the day before the contest, maybe during a special preview show broadcast in prime time – akin to a postal vote for an election, only more hi-tech,