SBS, the Australian national broadcaster, has presented its 2024 content at a special event in Sydney, where it revealed that it will be broadcasting the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest with the participation yet to be confirmed.

TV Tonight Australia reports that SBS will be broadcasting the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest,  whilst the Aussie participation in Malmo is yet to be confirmed. SBS is still negotiating Australia’s participation at the competition.

Last month ESCToday had reached out to SBS regarding Australia’s Eurovision 2024 participation and the Australian national broadcaster told ESCToday:

Eurovision is a cherished part of the SBS family. Australia’s future participation in the song contest is currently in discussion. We understand Eurovision fans are eager for an update and appreciate their patience as we work through these next steps. We’ll confirm details as soon as we are able.

Now it has been confirmed that SBS will screen the forthcoming Eurovision in Malmo whilst the country’s Eurovision participation continues to be under discussion.

SBS spoke to TV Tonight and gave the following statement regarding Australia’s Eurovision 2024 participation:

Eurovision is a cherished part of the SBS family, our intention is for Australia to remain in the competition and we are currently in discussions. We’ll confirm details as soon as we are able.

Australia has brought a breath of fresh air to the competition with their 8 Eurovision participations, the country has faithfully competed in the competition since its debut.

The deadline for broadcasters to apply for participation concluded on 15 September 2023 whilst grace period for applicant countries to withdraw their application without facing a financial penalty concluded on 11 October 2023.

The EBU is set to unveil the official list of the Eurovision 2024 competing countries in due course. We will have to wait a tad longer to see which countries will be joining the party. So far 35 countries have confirmed their participation so far, with Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Armenia, Romania and Australia yet to confirm.

The Australian Eurovision Dream

The ultimate Aussie Eurovision dream saw the day of light back in 2015 when our neighbors down under were invited to partake in Europe’s favourite television show in Vienna. 2019 saw Australia holding a full fledged national final in order to determine its Eurovision hopeful, thus celebrating its fifth consecutive Eurovision participation. The Aussies continued with their national final in 2020 and 2022.

Until now SBS had to wait for an invite from the EBU and  host broadcaster in order to participate in our beloved song contest, on a year to year basis. This was no longer be necessary until 2023 as SBS Australia and the EBU  sealed a five year deal enabling the country to compete in the song contest for  five years. This deal concluded in 2023 and we are yet awaiting to see how the EBU and Australia will proceed from here, if another deal will be sealed, if a year by year invite is extended,  or if Australia will be granted a permanent place in the competition.

The Eurovision Song Contest’s Reference Group (the governing body of the competition on behalf of the competing broadcasters) approved the decision to grant Australia and SBS the right to participate at the Eurovision Song Contest for the next five years, thus securing participation in the competition until 2023.

Australia was invited to participate at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna as a one off occasion, but our neighbours down under embraced the contest with such enthusiasm they were invited back again in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021,  2022 and 2023.

The Aussies have won the hearts of Eurovision fans near and far, achieving 5 Top 10 placings in their short eight year Eurovision history.

Australia in Eurovision

Australia debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015 and has partaken in the competition 8 times.

The Aussies achieved their best result in the contest in 2016 when Dami Im nearly walked away with the Grand Prix with her entry Sound of silence, placing 2nd in Stockholm.

In 2023 Voyager defended the Aussie colors at the Eurovision Song Contest in Livepool with their entry ‘Promise’ achieving a 9th place in the Grand Final.

Source: TV Tonight / SBS/ ESCToday
Photo credit: SBS