Why is Australia participating in Eurovision?
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- čas přidán 7. 04. 2023
- #eurovision #australia
I am looking at the history of Australia with the Eurovision Song Contest to answer the question on the lips of every non-fan at your Eurovision viewing party: Why on earth is Australia allowed in Eurovision? It isn't even in Europe.
In the video I look at the different aspects, from migration from Europe, to the Australian music industry and participations of Aussies long before Australia proper joined the Eurovision Song Contest.
Show this video to non fans before the final or semi-final and finally enjoy the Australian entry at Eurovision without having to explain yourself ;) - Zábava
I think at this point Australia has become a honorary European country during Eurovision season. Few years ago I was one of the sceptics questioning their invitation. Now I am perfectly okay with them performing at ESC stage. It would be cool to see them winning one day too.
They should win this year… they should’ve won 2016 and 2019.
that would be hilarious.
@@Cestvache Hopefully this year
Australia is one of my faves this year. Also best rock song for me hands down. Dami Im is also a Eurovision queen. Hope they stay.
I really like Australia at Eurovision. They have a large and diverse mix of artists to choose from so just for that alone I'd like them to stay. They send quality stuff, they love Eurovision, they love being a part of it all and they can pay the fee. So I guess they're here to stay 😊 totally fine with that.
I think if a country can show that their citizens are massive Eurovision fans, there should be a dialogue about participating.
Funfact from the Aussies: SBS (Special broadcasting service) is a specialised Aussie public broadcaster that primarily air multicultural and diverse content catered for our multicultural communities.
You'll find foreign news bulletions, world movies (with subtitles/close captions), multi-lingual radio shows and the occasional foreign shows on SBS.
Australia is an interesting melting pot of cultures around the word, we love Eurovision as much as we love CNY and a whole list of other events. (We are also happy to tell you about the anti-drop bear repelliant but it might be a hard one to try.)
Thank you for the background. I see how it makes total sense for SBS to pursue Eurovision 🤗
Every year, my best friend 'complains' about Azerbaijan, Israel and Australia not being in Europe and that they shouldn't be allowed just to annoy me 😂
Since eurovision is supposed to be about inclusively, I have never had issues with Australia being an honorary member. I would be absolutely fine with more 'outside' countries joining so that we can enjoy their artists. Eurovision is how we discover musicians we would never know about otherwise. ❤
As an Aussie who watched Eurovision for years, I still want to pinch myself that we're actually on the stage and in amongst all the other amazing artists from around Europe (and beyond). I get up at 4am just so I can vote for my favourite songs! It's such a privilege and I definitely don't want to miss out on the voting experience :) I'd love us to win one year and co-host with another country - it'd be so much fun!
@@WriterLilyth staying up tonight to watch it at 5am...
That is Eurovision fever ;)
@@eurovisionhistories ugh. time for caffeine....
@@WriterLilyth that is dedication 👍
Thank you, I found it very informative this I am going to save and learn some facts for my friends in the final which are not so big fans and don’t understand this. And I love Australia entries, so I hope they keep coming!
Glad you liked it ;)
It doen't make any sense for Australia to withdraw, they have high viewing numbers(money for SBS), they have good results(population is going to be more interested if they do well) and they pay the fee(money for EBU)...win for everyone
Danny the lead singer was born in Germany, and immigrated with his family at the age of 11, he was born in Europe so he qualifies
Qualifies for what?
Good summary. SBS or Special Broadcasting Service is an Australian Government supported broadcaster - although they now also get revenue from advertising. A large part of their function is to provide multilingual television, radio and internet content to Australia's large immigrant and first generation population. A lot of these immigrants were from Europe. It is often quoted that Melbourne in Australia has the second largest Greek population in a city after Athens. SBS shows a lot of films and series in European languages (with English subtitles). They also screen shows in other world languages (as well a quite a bit in English). Eurovision was a natural fit for them to broadcast in Australia. In the early days they took the feed of the show from England. And Australians not only fell in love with the contest itself but also liked the irreverent tongue in cheek commentary of the English commentator Terry Wogan at the time.
If Australia is to stay in the contest SBS really needs to explain itself and Australia's Eurovison story much better to the general European voting public - Why Australia? Up to now - and it was seen again in this year's (2023) Eurovision - Australia often does well in the jury voting section but gets slaughtered in the public vote. (Only 21 votes for Voyager's great performance!) I suspect this is because the European voters don't understand why we are in the contest. And perhaps even resent Australia butting into their contest.
As I understand it, SBS's highest ratings year in/year out was for Eurovision, as it is enormously popular here. SBS paid the EBU a stack of money for us to join, so that they could get even more ratings by having more Eurovision stuff. I think if a country adores Eurovision there is no harm in inviting them to compete (unless the country is generally anti the European project/rules-based) international order. If that countries' participation is a generally positive experience, they could remain, being renewed every few years.
Having said all that, I'm getting the impression that Europe is getting a bit over Australia participating, and are a bit more reluctant to give us points. That just means we have to submit more competitive entries. I quite like Voyager, but am not sure how well we will do. We will probably qualify due to the weak 2nd demi final, but I fear we will end up on the right side in the final.
Don’t worry about voyager! I think they have already a lot of fans in Europe, and they did fantastic in the prepartys, I was just blown away how good they were live! I think, and I hope they go to the final as they are in my top 3!! Greetings from Spain!
@@martinnur aw bless you!
As long as Australia makes the Grand Final, the ratings stay high. It dropped off during covid-times due to us being unable to physically participate. We do have a handicap to overcome, and that's the public who dislike us being invited to their party. Maybe after a few more years it'll be like Israel and Azerbaijan (and previously, Lebanon and Morocco) where they just become part of the furniture and people stop complaining they're 'not Europe'. Maybe we'll hit the magic formula, do a UK, and earn a hell of a lot of respect from the European community with a big, amazing performance! I hope we stick around after 2023 - who knows what we can do!
@@WriterLilyth me too
And guess what: Australia won 2nd semi final and ended in top 10 lmao
Would be INSANE if Australia gets to host eventually. I'm totally for it!!!
Hahaha if you pay the plane tickets
@@eurovisionhistories 😂
Excellent video as usual.
Thank you Max 🥰
The fact that Australian is allowed to participate in the ESC and how it came about, I think, is a wonderful story. Australians are extremely likeable people who have their hearts in the right place and the musicians they send to the ESC since they are allowed to participate always give their best and carry the will to win. Moreover, the Australians are aware of their privilege to participate as a non-European nation, or rather non-member of the European broadcasting area.
Of course, a case like Australia should always remain the exception and not become the rule.
Because it sends quality song
Love that painting.
After the second world war Europeans flocked to Australia, many coming out to work on the Snow River Hydro Electric scheme, the major influx was in the late 40s and 50s (though Italians came out in the 20s and 30s too and there has always been a strong Irish population). By the seventies you had a large generation of Australians whose parents were born in Europe and had a foot in each camp (and now you are seeing Cyprus attract performers whose grandparents were born in Europe). SBS (Special Broadcasting Service) was created to service those wishing to stay in touch with their European (Asian and Indigenous) culture it was formed in 1978 (which where you would have got the 70s reference from). It has strong ties to several European broadcasters (remember a Danish royal was born here), ironically those didn't include the BBC until after Dami finished second (a coincidence) - before that most BBC programs went to the ABC or Channel Seven. I've largely found that the BBC rumour (like the Danni Minogue rumour which many Aussies found worrying and very unlikely - to be honest picking her could damage the Eurovision brand for Australians - far more likely to be Electric Fields or Tones and I - who most Australians have been whispering about) came from Europeans who think our love of Eurovision comes from the Brits. I find most expat Brits don't watch or understand modern Eurovision. In the beginning SBS was largely funded by the government but had to find ways to become economically viable. Soccer world cups, Eurovision and the quality overseas and local programing (and some advertising) helped give them a profile beyond the place where you found the best European films and world news. As far as being in Eurovision - it costs a lot of money for SBS (who often look to tourism bodies for support) to send an act that (under our previous agreement which also included not hosting for time difference reasons) must be competitive. Looking at it from the Eurovision side we bring 27 million potential viewers way bigger than a lot of the European countries (our population includes the biggest Greek city outside of Greece and apparently more people of Maltese heritage than Malta).
I have yet to make the pilgrimage to Europe to see Eurovision, so I hope when I eventually get there Australia will still be in the competition! Not a necessity, it will be incredible either way. It will just be the cherry on top.
That is a great reason to want AUS to stay ;)
Here in South America we have a football (soccer UGH) cup between south american countries, but sometimes we invite other countries like Japan, Mexico, USA and even Qatar to play with us. I believe it is normal things in these types of regional/continental competitions.
I dont get it why so many people complains about Australian participation. These guys love eurovision and they're really take serious (even more than some european countries like Ireland lmao)
Of course they will be invited in the years to come. Don't forget the money they bring. Greetings from Austria (that one with kangaroos only in zoos).
😢
I'm going to refer to Austria as the 'one with Kangaroos only in Zoos' from now on. Sorry that 'Australia' is alphabetically first... I always feel bad for Austrians!
I wish I could play the Eurovision game in behind with you! ^_^ I also have it, but I have nobody who is interested in ESC the way I am
Same haha
Let’s not forget Johnny Logan who has won it more times than anyone was … Australian but represented Ireland
I did mention him I think
What next on the list that ESC will bring on the list to join: 🇨🇦 or 🇿🇦 even South America, that i want to see.
The Australian TV channel SBS contributes to EBU to have the broadcast.
THREE TIME EUROVISION WINNER JOHNNY LOGAN?!? Not quite yet lmao but I'm holding out hope!
He won twice as a performer (1980,1987) and then as a songwriter (1992).
Bad fan 😂🤗
@@eurovisionhistories LMAOO my bad I didn't consider 1992 as a win for him haha
Many people do not know actually why Eurovision song contest is broadcast only at Europe and Australia? The reason is actually because Eurovision created technical EBU tv standards (you can google it) and tryed to get it as universal standard... Now as UK have been involved to Australia to get them to select EBU broadcasting standard, that is the reason why they get to get invoved in this competition... I guess they have been trying to push this technology to US also but as US have been using NTSC standard and lower quality broadcasting tv standard, might be the reason why they haven been selected (or even invited) to the competition and also reason why they haven´t shown this at US tv...? :)
It's crazy because Australia is a continent of its own, can be in EUROvision and at the same time can compete in the FIBA ASIA Cup
As a pom (Brit) living in Australia I can say that I wholeheartedly prefer following ESC here than back in UK.
The British attitude to ESC is often laced with disdain and mockery. Aussies, on the other hand, embrace the contest with enthusiasm which was so refreshing when I arrived here!
The only awful thing: waking up at 5am to watch. It's horrendous!
Great to hear aussies have a good attitude (I didn't expect anything elsw haha)
and I can relate to the time difference issue ;)
I wonder, has the attitude of Brits worsen during last few decades and why is it like that actually? I can imagine them being more or less bitter about the contest expanding and thus having more competitors to the "old" participants or maybe even about changing the language rule... I may be wrong but I think their attitude must've been different during 60s-90s, I guess?
I think a lot came from losing the language advantage and Terry Wogan's (in my opinion) problematic Eurovision commentary did not help at all. He destroyed the contests reputation
Who knows, maybe Canada or a South American country will join in the future. Very little would surprise me in that regard. There are a few Filipino Eurovision CZcamsrs, so maybe The Philippines will join. And Kazakhstan is in junior Eurovision.
The Philipinnes at Eurovision would be a great addition! They have loads of insanely talented artists. Also Canada, why not. New Zealand, South Africa..love to see it all happen. There are quite a few countries that could be (re-)invited, if they want to 😊 It has to stay a manageable quantity ofcourse. But there is room for a few more at the table..and if not we'll just build a bigger table 😊
@@Stonebrook83 There could be 3 semis instead of 2, to fit in more songs. The competition would become insanely difficult though. But it could be done.
@@nian60 I think we could pull off two semi's with 20 countries each. That would already give room to some more countries. Who knows..3 semi's in the future might be possible..after all more countries means more money and let's face it..money makes the world go round...so if it can be logistically done I think the EBU would be open to that but probably not for a long time yet.
@@Stonebrook83 20 songs, that would be very long shows though. I don't know how many people would be prepared to sit through something that long.
@@nian60 In 2018 there were 19 songs in semi 1 and 18 in semi 2. I don't know the viewing figures for those semi's so maybe half the people went to sleep before the end.. :-) It depends on the quality of the songs too..if the last 6 are rubbish it will be a long night for sure.
before there was internet (long, long time ago ) Australia only had 5 TV channels, and one those channels was SBS, that (mostly) only showed non-English European movies , TV shows and European non-English news ...and course it show Eurovision....
So Australians have been exposed to Eurovision for a very long time, in a way the other non European English speaking countries have not
Also SBS channel have been a long time buyer of non-English European film and TV content for over 50 years, so SBS and EBU have had long term business relationship, so with EBU desire to explore and expand Eurovision commercial reach out side of Europe, Australia become important in intermediary into Asia
Thanks for the background! Are you from Australia?
@@eurovisionhistories I'am Australian..but live 20 years in Europe
I kinda wonder if the rest of the world vote might be a gateway into adding another country outside of the EBU (hopefully not my country aka murica, we would absolutely ruin it). Especially since I would assume they could get substantial stats out of that.
I don't really think it would work in America. If they put it on noone would "get" it.
I think Eurovision only works with the shared history, the childhood memories of watching it and making it an event etc.
I don't get the superbowl for example...
@@eurovisionhistories as someone that grew up with a sports fan parent, i don't get it either (aside from the halftime shows lol)
Haha same. But I meant that in America the Superbowl has a similar nostalgia/event character attached to it no?
@@eurovisionhistories I think it depends on the person and whatnot
Do you think Australia is a good addition to Eurovision?
No. I don't see any feasible or logical reason for them to be part of this show and I was always against it, and still am. The fact that Australian fans like the show isn't even a valid argument for me. And the ratings aren't even that good for the LIVE shows! No wonder, the show starts at 5am or 6am there. The reason for Australia to be here is purely economical because it's a rich country and they can buy their way in. The EBU bended their own rules to allow "associated members" to join, previously it was exclusively for OFFICIAL members only. At the same time, they won't allow Kazakhstan to join, even though it's much closer to Europe than Australia is. I also laugh at the argument that Australia is very "European" as if Europe only had Anglo-Saxon culture.
I'm indifferent since I only genuinely like a couple songs they've sent but from an unbiased perspective they bring decent quality and as long as they continue to enjoy it then they're more than welcome in my book.
Absolutely, Australia has taken the contest extremely seriously and tried hard to send a quality act with great staging every year. Every song and performance has been great, nobody will ever forget Dami Im or Kate Miller Heidke and the only real disappointing song and performance was Isiah in my opinion. For the contest to grow, thrive and survive it's probably going to need to look outside Europe as the large costs of participation vs disappointing results is seeing more and more European countries withdraw, not to mention those withdrawing for homophobic reasons and being excluded for non-European values (eg war).
Hi, an Australian here who started watching Eurovision this year.
Thank you for producing this video. Since I started getting interested, I get this question all the time.
Having the same question in my head at first, I went and did the research and now fully understand why we are there, and now really love the inclusivity of the competition. As I have been learning more and more of the overall history of the whole competition, to me the ESC seems to be an evolving beast that has been progressive and evolving with the times. So to see comments from people saying things like "Australia isn't physically in the EU, so why is it even there?" is really quite disheartening. However I have come to learn that it's just a case of those people learning a bit more of the joint history of Australia, the EU and the EBU, broadening their horizons a bit and looking at the bigger picture of the direction of the competition in the future, and eventually they too come to the table (I was one of them!). Especially if we want to keep it going, as one of the few big unified beacons of creativity and hope. The argument that an event centered around performance and creativity needs to not be flexible and inclusive when it is so visible now on a global stage seems like the opposite of all that, and has never really made much sense to me.
I am so glad we get to be a part of it, and I know as a country that is so passionate about it - and if getting up at stupid o'clock to watch it live and despite the time of day still delivering the best ratings one of our national broadcasters has ever had, ever... then I don't know what is! - that I speak for other ESC fans who live here too.
So thank you ESC fam for accepting us from across the sea. Given we are so far away from most of the rest of the world here, it is really heartwarming that we have this connection now that I hope lasts for many more years to come! ♥
@@Sergiovision so there's a history back in the 80s that Australia saved Eurovision from folding... you're welcome 😊
Australia would partner with Sweden or even Denmark
If you think they can't fill up a stadium in Melbourne to watch a show at 5am, you don't know Melbourne.
I hope if Australia wins Eurovision we do actually host it here. The logistics issues are all solvable.
If you pay for everyone's flight maybe ;) otherwise many countries would have to withdraw I think
Biased, but Australia gud, one day we will eclipse Europe hehe
They may love Eurovision but if they want to participate, they should live a EuroV country.
Their participation makes nonsense of the original purpose of EuroV
I believe Australia should not participate into our European event.
They should organize a song contest between their states/cities then.