Eurovision’s most far-flung country, Australia have secured their guest place at the contest with a confirmed participation until at least 2023. For the first time since they first entered in 2015, they held a national final and it was singer-songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke who triumphed in both the public vote and jury vote.

Now I will confess I was rooting for the song that was the runner up, “2000 and Whatever” by Electric Fields. I thought that would have gone down so well at the contest (and would have been in my top 10 or even top 5 possibly). It wasn’t to be though, and Kate is deservedly there. She’s classically trained but her career has been in alternative pop (and also some acting and musical theatre).

Now I doubt I will win many fans among my own group of Eurovision friends (or at least some of them) who are big fans of this popera/EDM mix up (and also this has many supporters in the fandom), but it doesn’t really do it for me – it’s a bit of a hot mess and feels like it’s going down the throw in the kitchen sink route to Eurovision. Kate is clearly a big believer in her song, and that comes across in her performance (she wrote the song as well, about her post natal depression).

The bonkers staging of the national final is apparently changing for the contest but I am sure it is still going to be distinctive. Part of the reason why it won (certainly among the televote) was the appeal that the over the top production made to the Saturday night audience. This song has the chance to capture that vote again (and certainly after two poor televote results for Australia) while possibly still picking up points from the (to date) pro-Australian juries. While I think there might be a chance of this non-qualifying, it’s more likely we’ll see Australia maintaining their 100% qualification record.

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National final performance:

My preview video:

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Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest