Abstract
This chapter provides a final reflection on the themes and arguments of the collection via an examination of Eurovision—Australia Decides, Australia’s first national selection of its representative artist for the Eurovision Song Contest held in 2019. It argues that the event signals a transition in Australia’s internal and external relationships with the Eurovision Song Contest. Domestically, it has the potential to foster both tourism and local creative industries. Externally, the transition has further ramifications for Australia’s relationships with both Europe and the Indo-Pacific regions as the Australian delegation seeks to continue to participate in the original song contest while also facilitating the new Eurovision Asia event.
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Notes
- 1.
For the purposes of measuring Australian television rankings, the figures are split between the “Metro” areas of the major capital cities, and the “Regional” areas of the remainder of the country, as each often receive different programming.
- 2.
Unless cited otherwise, all “fan” views are taken from Jessica Carniel’s mixed method survey of Australian Eurovision fans, conducted 2016–2017.
- 3.
Part of the prize awarded on Australian Idol was a contract with Sony BMG.
- 4.
Jessica Carniel was not involved in this arrangement!
- 5.
- 6.
Matteo Salvini’s criticisms combined an aesthetic judgement with vague anti-immigration sentiment (“Mahmood …mah…the most beautiful Italian song? I would have chosen #Ultimo”), while Luigi di Maio decried it as evidence of the “abysmal distance between the people and the ‘elites’” (quoted in Giuffrida 2019).
- 7.
Both acts featured projections on to the skirt and mountain. The projector was so expensive that the Estonian delegation could not afford to use it at Eurovision until the Russian delegation also opted for a projector in their staging and permitted Estonia to use it.
- 8.
Two regular participants, Bulgaria and Ukraine, are not participating in 2019 for reasons unrelated to Israel. Bulgaria confirmed non-participation on financial grounds, while Ukraine withdrew after furore surrounding their national selection, in which winning artist Maruv was pressured about her stance on Crimea and her professional connections in Russia.
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Carniel, J., Hay, C. (2019). Conclusion—Eurovision—Australia Decides. In: Hay, C., Carniel, J. (eds) Eurovision and Australia. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20058-9_13
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