Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Eurovision Song Contest 2015
Country  Australia
National selection
Selection process Internal selection
Selection date(s) 3 March 2015
Selected entrant Guy Sebastian
Selected song "Tonight Again"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Final result 5th, 196 points
Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest
2015

Australia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna, Austria. Owing to its cultural and political ties to European countries, the Eurovision Song Contest has been televised in Australia by the public broadcaster SBS for over thirty years. In honour of the contest's 60th running and in recognition of the event's popularity in Australia, it was announced on 10 February 2015 that Australia was to be invited to compete in the 2015 contest as a special guest participant. Australians have participated in and even won Eurovision as representatives of other countries (Australian coloratura soprano Mary-Jean O'Doherty participated in the 2015 contest as part of the group Genealogy representing Armenia), but this marked the first time that the country officially participated.

In March 2015, SBS announced that it had selected Guy Sebastian to represent Australia; he performed the song "Tonight Again" written by himself, David Ryan Harris and Louis Schoorl. Along with Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, Australia was given an automatic entry into the grand final. Although this was considered a one-off event, Australia would, in accordance with Eurovision rules, still be able to return for the 2016 contest if it were to win. The EBU has considered the possibility of similarly inviting other guest countries to future editions of the contest.[1] 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.[2]

Australia finished in fifth place in the final on 23 May, with a total of 196 points.[3] In terms of individual votes, Sweden, Austria, Norway, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Iceland, Hungary, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Poland and San Marino all placed Australia in the top three. Host nation Austria and winner of the contest Sweden awarded 12 points to Australia.

Background[edit]

Main article: Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) has broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest for over 30 years, and the popularity of the contest has grown over those years—primarily a result of the country's strong political and cultural ties with Europe. The cult following of Eurovision in Australia has been acknowledged during the event itself; during the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, an interval act during the semi-finals paid tribute to Australian culture, and featured a performance by local singer Jessica Mauboy.[1][4] Australian singers have also participated at Eurovision as representatives of other countries, including Olivia Newton John (1974, United Kingdom), two-time winner Johnny Logan (Ireland), Gina G (1996, United Kingdom), and Jane Comerford as lead singer of Texas Lightning (2006, Germany).[1]

Tying in with the goal of Eurovision—to showcase "the importance of bringing countries together to celebrate diversity, music and culture", the 2015 theme of "Building Bridges", and arguing that they could not hold "the world's biggest party" to celebrate the 60th edition of Eurovision without inviting Australia, the EBU announced on 10 February 2015 that the country would compete at that year's edition as a special guest participant.[1] At a press conference held at the Sydney Opera House on 5 March 2015 at 09:30 Australian Eastern Standard Time (22:30 4 March 2015 GMT), it was announced that the Australian public broadcaster, SBS, had internally selected Guy Sebastian to represent Australia at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.[1][5] Sebastian's song, "Tonight Again", was officially unveiled by SBS on 16 March.[6]

At Eurovision[edit]

Normally, all countries except the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the host country are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final. The special circumstances surrounding Australia's entry and "to not reduce the chances" of the semi-final participants have led the organisers to allow Australia to compete directly in the grand final without pre-qualification. This raises the number of competitors in the grand final to 27.[7]

Australia voted in both semi-finals and the grand final.[7] The Australian votes were decided by a professional jury and votes cast by the public.[8] Australia's participation in the Eurovision was a one-off event; however, if Australia had won, it would have been able to return for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, as is customary. If this were to occur, the contest would have been co-organized by an EBU member and held in a European host city.[1][7]

Sebastian was not the only Australian participating in the 2015 contest; Australian soprano Mary-Jean O'Doherty participated as a member of Genealogy, a group representing Armenia that consisted primarily of Armenian diaspora.[9] The Russian song was also co-written by an Australian, Katrina Noorbergen, who also performed backing vocals for Polina Gagarina.[10]

On 18 May, Lee Lin Chin was announced as Australia's voting spokesperson on an episode of The Feed.[11]

Points Awarded to Australia[edit]

Points Awarded to Australia (Final)
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Points Awarded by Australia[edit]

Split voting results[edit]

The following five members comprised the Australian jury:[12]

  • Amanda Pelman – Chairperson – producer
  • Richard Wilkins – radio DJ, entertainment journalist
  • Danielle Spencer – singer, songwriter
  • Ash London – radio broadcaster, TV presenter
  • Jake Stone – singer, songwriter, performer

Semi-final 1[edit]

The Australian votes in the first semi-final will be based on 50% jury voting and 50% televoting results.[13]

Semi-final 1 – Australian Results
Draw Country A. Pelman R. Wilkins D. Spencer A. London J. Stone Average Jury Rank Televote Rank Combined Rank Scoreboard (Points)
01  Moldova 14 10 11 16 14 15 11 13
02  Armenia 13 15 14 15 16 16 12 14
03  Belgium 16 13 1 3 2 6 2 3 8
04  Netherlands 11 6 6 7 6 7 15 12
05  Finland 10 14 16 9 7 12 9 11
06  Greece 9 3 5 5 8 5 6 5 6
07  Estonia 12 5 12 10 9 10 3 6 5
08  Macedonia 4 16 9 13 12 11 5 8 3
09  Serbia 2 2 13 2 4 3 1 1 12
10  Hungary 3 9 4 6 5 4 13 9 2
11  Belarus 15 12 10 14 13 14 14 15
12  Russia 1 1 2 1 1 1 4 2 10
13  Denmark 7 4 8 11 10 8 7 7 4
14  Albania 6 11 15 12 15 13 16 16
15  Romania 8 8 7 8 11 9 10 10 1
16  Georgia 5 7 3 4 3 2 8 4 7

Semi-final 2[edit]

The Australian votes in the second semi-final will be based on 50% jury voting and 50% televoting results.[14]

Semi-final 2 – Australian Results
Draw Country A. Pelman R. Wilkins D. Spencer A. London J. Stone Average Jury Rank Televote Rank Combined Rank Scoreboard (Points)
01  Lithuania 7 14 15 6 9 9 7 7 4
02  Ireland 6 2 5 9 15 6 13 11
03  San Marino 17 16 17 17 16 17 17 17
04  Montenegro 16 15 9 8 8 11 11 12
05  Malta 13 10 14 11 10 13 4 8 3
06  Norway 9 3 1 2 3 2 5 3 8
07  Portugal 14 12 12 12 7 12 12 14
08  Czech Republic 15 13 7 10 17 15 15 15
09  Israel 3 17 8 5 5 7 2 4 7
10  Latvia 10 4 2 4 2 4 3 2 10
11  Azerbaijan 4 6 4 3 4 3 14 9 2
12  Iceland 5 9 16 16 14 14 10 13
13  Sweden 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 12
14   Switzerland 11 11 13 15 13 16 16 16
15  Cyprus 2 8 6 7 6 5 8 5 6
16  Slovenia 8 7 10 13 12 8 6 6 5
17  Poland 12 5 11 14 11 10 9 10 1

Final[edit]

The Australian votes in the final will be based on 50% jury voting and 50% televoting results.[15]

Final – Australian Results
Draw Country A. Pelman R. Wilkins D. Spencer A. London J. Stone Average Jury Rank Televote Rank Combined Rank Scoreboard (Points)
01  Slovenia 20 13 26 26 26 24 19 22
02  France 18 12 20 14 17 21 24 24
03  Israel 8 25 9 9 14 11 8 9 2
04  Estonia 16 16 19 10 10 13 6 8 3
05  United Kingdom 4 23 8 19 25 18 9 11
06  Armenia 19 24 25 22 24 26 13 21
07  Lithuania 17 21 21 11 9 17 12 13
08  Serbia 13 4 22 4 8 9 3 6 5
09  Norway 7 7 4 6 3 3 10 7 4
10  Sweden 2 3 3 1 2 2 1 1 12
11  Cyprus 3 6 17 18 12 10 17 12
12  Australia
13  Belgium 24 18 2 2 4 8 2 5 6
14  Austria 5 17 15 20 21 15 20 19
15  Greece 22 9 16 17 15 20 11 15
16  Montenegro 26 19 18 25 23 25 21 25
17  Germany 12 8 14 24 11 12 18 14
18  Poland 25 11 24 23 22 22 23 23
19  Latvia 15 5 5 7 5 4 5 4 7
20  Romania 23 15 10 12 19 19 14 18
21  Spain 14 20 11 13 20 16 16 16
22  Hungary 10 22 12 15 16 14 22 20
23  Georgia 9 10 7 16 6 7 15 10 1
24  Azerbaijan 6 14 13 8 7 6 26 17
25  Russia 1 1 1 3 1 1 7 2 10
26  Albania 21 26 23 21 18 23 25 26
27  Italy 11 2 6 5 13 5 4 3 8

Broadcast[edit]

Both semi-finals and the final were broadcast live on SBS One at 5am AEST, allowing Australia to participate in the official voting period. In addition to live broadcasts early on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday mornings, all three shows were replayed in primetime on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.[16]

According to OzTAM viewership ratings for metropolitan markets, the first semi-final attracted 75,000 viewers watching live on 20 May, with an additional 500,000 viewers watching a primetime replay on 22 May. The replay was the most watched program on any Australian television channel with viewers aged 16–39 on 22 May.[17]

The second semi-final was watched by 61,000 viewers live on 22 May,[18] and an additional 639,000 viewers watching a primetime replay on 23 May. The latter is a record audience for any Eurovision broadcast in Australian history.[19] The replay was also the most watched television program with viewers aged 16–49, and second most watched with viewers 25-54 on 23 May.[20]

The final was broadcast live on 24 May and replayed the same day in primetime. The live broadcast, airing between 5am and 9am AEST was watched by 263,000 viewers, while the primetime broadcast drew 592,000 viewers. The primetime replay improved on the 476,000 viewers that watched the 2014 final by more than 20%.[21]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Eurovision Song Contest invites Australia to join ‘world’s biggest party’". The Guardian. 10 February 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2015. 
  2. ^ Waddell, Nathan (22 May 2015). "Australia: Australia may become a solid participant, says JOS". escXtra. Retrieved 21 May 2015. 
  3. ^ "Eurovision 2015: Australia will be watching", news.com.au. Accessed 24 May 2015
  4. ^ Vincent, Peter (9 May 2014). "Jessica Mauboy performs at Eurovision Song Contest". smh.com.au. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 February 2015. 
  5. ^ Jiandani, Sanjay (4 March 2015). "Australia: Guy Sebastian will fly to Vienna!". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 5 March 2015. 
  6. ^ "Guy Sebastian releases the song he’ll sing at Eurovision". news.com.au. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 16 March 2015. 
  7. ^ a b c "Australia participate in the 60th Eurovision". Eurovision.tv. EBU. 10 February 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2015. 
  8. ^ "Australia: Jury and Televoting for all the shows". esctoday.com. Retrieved 17 May 2015. 
  9. ^ Brey, Marco (3 March 2015). "Armenia: Fifth artist of Genealogy known!". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  10. ^ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/music/aussie-katrina-noorbergen-gets-in-on-the-russian-act-for-eurovision/story-fniwj43s-1227349491267
  11. ^ "Honestly, did you really think anybody else would be up to the task? #TheFeedSBS #SBSEurovision". Twitter. The Feed SBS. Retrieved 18 May 2015. 
  12. ^ Bakker, Sietse (1 May 2015). "Here are this year's national juries!". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 1 May 2015. 
  13. ^ "Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 First Semi-Final". Eurovision.tv. 24 May 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2015. 
  14. ^ "Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 Second Semi-Final". Eurovision.tv. 24 May 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2015. 
  15. ^ "Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 Grand Final". Eurovision.tv. 24 May 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2015. 
  16. ^ Knox, David (May 18, 2015). "Eurovision Song Contest 2015: ultimate guide". TV Tonight. Retrieved May 25, 2015. 
  17. ^ Knox, David (May 23, 2015). "Friday 22 May 2015". TV Tonight. Retrieved May 25, 2015. 
  18. ^ Knox, David (May 24, 2015). "SBS pushing primetime Eurovision over Live voting". TV Tonight. Retrieved May 25, 2015. 
  19. ^ Knox, David (May 25, 2015). "Seven stays in front". TV Tonight. Retrieved May 25, 2015. 
  20. ^ Knox, David (May 24, 2015). "Saturday 23 May 2015". TV Tonight. Retrieved May 25, 2015. 
  21. ^ Knox, David (25 May 2015). "Seven, SBS score on Sunday". TV Tonight. Retrieved 25 May 2015. 
 Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Australia_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest_2015&oldid=672696104"