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And Finally Artist News Media
Australia returning to Eurovision next year
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 17 November 2015
If you enjoyed shouting “what the fuck is Australia doing on Eurovision?” at your TV back in May, well have I got some news for you. It’s coming back next year too.
As previously reported, Australia’s appearance in the big song contest was intended to be a one-off for the event’s 60th anniversary. However, bringing in another continent proved so popular – the Aussie song coming fifth overall – that it’s happening again in 2016. And there could be more.
“The feedback we got from viewers, fans, press and the broadcasters after Australia’s participation in Vienna was overwhelmingly positive”, says the European Broadcasting Union’s Jon Ola Sand. “We strongly believe the Eurovision Song Contest has the potential to evolve organically into a truly global event. Australia’s continued participation is an exciting step in that direction. It remains to be seen what such an event may look like in the long run”.
That would be quite a radical change though, wouldn’t it? There were already 39 countries competing in 2015, two of them non-European, what with Israel joining in the fun too (it sits within the European Broadcasting Area, like past entrant Morocco). The semi-finals were introduced in 2004 to cope with the expanding number of entries. Would we have to have quarter finals in the future? Would Eurovision take a week to get through? Would it even be called Eurovision? Have you thought this through, Jon Ola Sand? I mean, really, have you actually thought this through at all?