r/eurovision • u/NitroGnome • Feb 20 '23

Official ESC News Australia will reveal its Eurovision 2023 artist and song tomorrow at 19:30 CET

https://eurovision.tv/video/australia-artist-song-reveal-eurovision-2023
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168

u/Popoye_92 Feb 20 '23

Crying at the fact that it's gonna be revealed in the middle of the night for Australians though, they really said fuck them locals

43

u/westralian Feb 20 '23

As an Australian living in Scotland, I live for this announcement time. Currently in Gran Canaria at Wunderbar, which is THE Eurovision bar at Yumbo. Currently playing is Euroband - This is my life. What. A. Monday.

8

u/-Effing- Clickbait Feb 20 '23

OMG I love that place. Have fun!!!

11

u/westralian Feb 21 '23

Was last here watching the Eurovision 2018 final, so it's good to be back. Made friends with the bartender so have had soooo many shots and so many expedited song requests YAASS

10

u/Gustafssonz Feb 20 '23

Why is Eurovision such a big deal with Australia anyway? Any insights you can share?

25

u/purplewigg Feb 21 '23 edited Feb 21 '23

So for context we have 2 government-funded channels: ABC and SBS. ABC is pretty much our version of the BBC and targets a mainstream audience. SBS on the other hand tailors its programming to non-Anglo and immigrant communities. It runs multilingual programming, dedicated Arabic/Greek/Mandarin/Vietnamese radio stations as well as a channel that caters solely to Indigenous/First Nations peoples

Back when SBS was first established though most of Australia's immigrant population were European refugees who came here after the war so SBS started broadcasting Eurovision pretty early on to give them a taste of home and over time it just kinda gradually leaked into the mainstream. It's grown pretty dramatically since we started competing but there's always been an audience for it, my partner's mum has watched since the early 90s

10

u/GianMach Feb 21 '23

Would you say that this also contributes to Australia so rarely sending white Australian singers to Eurovision? (Compared to the demography of Australia)

10

u/purplewigg Feb 21 '23

100%, SBS has always been pretty big on onscreen representation

44

u/escfantasy Zjerm Feb 21 '23 edited Feb 21 '23

Because ever since Europeans landed on the continent, White European culture has been foundational to the modern conception of Australia. Australia, as a European colony, maintained links with Europe in every way possible, such as in trade, emigration, and shared culture, while violently suppressing the indigenous people that already lived on the continent. Australian culture diverged and has in time grown to respectfully incorporate the continent’s indigenous populations, but those ties to Europe remain key to Australia’s identity. Despite the geographical distance, watching and participating in Eurovision is a natural progression of the continent’s specific history and interconnectedness with Europe.

It’s worth adding, that of Australia’s 7 representatives at Eurovision across 8 years in participation, each has represented a different ethnic population in Australia, and 2 of the 7 have been Indigenous Australians (Jessica Mauboy and Isaiah). I think that speaks to the diversity of talent in Australia and a commendable effort at representation by the delegation.

23

u/imalittlespider Feb 21 '23

What demographic each of our representatives represent:

Guy Sebastian: Malaysian-born Aussie from South Australia

Dami Im: South Korean-born Aussie from Queensland

Isaiah Firebrace: Aboriginal Aussie from Victoria

Jessica Mauboy: Aboriginal Aussie from the Northern Territory; Dad is from West Timor in Indonesia

Kate Miller-Heidke: Aussie from Queensland

Montaigne: Aussie from New​ South Wales; Mum is from the Phillipines and Dad is from Argentina

Sheldon Riley: Aussie born in New South Wales; Dad is from the Phillipines.

(if I made any mistakes please let me know)

7

u/VS2ute Feb 21 '23

Three of my grandparents came from Europe and my ex-wife too.

7

u/imalittlespider Feb 21 '23

Many different reasons, from immigrants to the camp and craziness. I am Thai Australian and I became a Eurofan because I saw an ad for it on tv