| Eurovision Song Contest 2015 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  Australia | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Internal selection | |||
| Selection date(s) | Artist: 3 March 2015 Song: 16 March 2015 | |||
| Selected artist(s) | Guy Sebastian | |||
| Selected song | "Tonight Again" | |||
| Selected songwriter(s) |
| |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | 5th, 196 points | |||
| Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
| ||||
Australia debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 by invitation from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) as a "one-off" special guest to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Eurovision. The country participated with the song "Tonight Again" written by Guy Sebastian, David Ryan Harris and Louis Schoorl. The song was performed by Guy Sebastian, who was internally selected by the Australian broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) to represent that nation at the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria. Sebastian was announced as the Australian representative on 3 March 2015 during a press conference in Sydney. The song Sebastian performed, "Tonight Again", was presented to the public on 16 March 2015. The Australian coloratura soprano of Armenian descent Mary-Jean O'Doherty also participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 contest as part of the group Genealogy representing Armenia, but this marked the first time that the country has officially participated.[1]
Along with the members of the "Big Five" and Austria, Australia automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. In the final, Australia performed in position 12 and placed fifth out of the 27 participating countries, scoring 196 points.[2] In terms of individual votes, Austria, Denmark, Hungary, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom all placed Australia in the top three. Host nation Austria and winner of the contest Sweden awarded 12 points to Australia.
Following the 2015 contest, the EBU has considered the possibility of similarly inviting other guest countries to future editions of the contest.[3] However, it was revealed in May 2015 that Australia might become a permanent participant following some reports by executive supervisor Jon Ola Sand to the Swedish broadcaster.[4] In November 2015, the EBU announced that SBS had been invited to participate in the 2016 contest and that Australia would once again take part.[5]
- ^ Brey, Marco (3 March 2015). "Armenia: Fifth artist of Genealogy known!". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
- ^ "Eurovision 2015: Australia will be watching", news.com.au Archived 2015-08-17 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 24 May 2015
- ^ "Eurovision Song Contest invites Australia to join 'world's biggest party'". The Guardian. 10 February 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
- ^ Waddell, Nathan (22 May 2015). "Australia: Australia may become a solid participant, says JOS". escXtra. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
- ^ "Australia to return to the Eurovision Song Contest!". European Broadcasting Union. 11 November 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2016.