Acclaimed SA electronic pop duo to represent Australia at Eurovision

Eurovision fans have been lobbying SBS for the acclaimed music act to represent Australia at the singing contest for years — and it’s paid off.

Australian electronic pop duo Electric Fields will take the didgeridoo and ancient Indigenous language to the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time.

Eurovision diehards have been lobbying SBS for the South Australian duo to represent us at the singing competition for five years after they placed runner-up to Kate Miller-Heidke at the first Australian Decides selection show in 2019.

The acclaimed duo featuring the power-lunged vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding - who goes by both she/her and he/him pronouns - and producer and keyboardist Michael Ross will perform their self-penned dance anthem One Milkali (One Blood) which features the didgeridoo (yidaki).

Electric Fields’ Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross will represent Australia at the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest. Picture: SBS / Nick Wilson

The instant earworm also has a chorus chant sung in Fielding’s language Yankunytjatjara from his home in Mimili in the APY lands in South Australia.

Ross said it was likely the yidaki would feature during their performance on the Eurovision stage in Malmo in Sweden in May.

“I think that is an opportunity that would be crazy to miss,” he said.

“The way we’re going to tell the story of the song on the Eurovision stage is an evolving idea but we certainly don’t want to miss out on the chance to share that part of Australian culture with the world.”

Fielding has been acclaimed as one of the country’s unique and powerful voices since Electric Fields formed in 2015, and is also an award-winning artist, claiming the prestigious Wynne Prize in 2023 for his acrylic painting title Inma which represents.

As well as preparing for Eurovision, the artist is also working on art exhibitions of his work in Berlin and New York this year.

“I’m having so much fun. I dance on the canvas; the way I deliver and work with the energy with Michael on the stage is no different to what I do on the canvas,” Fielding said.

Zaachariaha Fielding of Electric Fields performs 2000 and Whatever during the 2019 Eurovision - Australia Decides final at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre. Picture: AAP Image/Regi Varghese

While First Nations artists Isaiah Firebrace and Jessica Mauboy have both competed at Eurovision, Electric Fields’ performance will be the first time Indigenous culture has taken at the stage at the world’s biggest singing competition.

The duo said their music has always struck a positive and unifying tone. The 2024 Eurovision contest will be staged against the political backdrop of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Israel and Hamas conflict.

Ross said the duo had often been asked to weight in on political issues “just because of the fact that we’re two different people being so harmonious together.”

“What Z and I can do is present a respectful harmonisation to model what respectful difference can look and sound like. Instead of saying, what’s wrong with the world, we want to say, what can be so great about the world,” he said.

This will be the ninth year Australia has competed at the addictive contest with Dami Im finishing highest at No. 2 in 2016 and last year’s entrant Voyager placing a respectable ninth.

Australia will compete in the first Eurovision semi-final at Malmo with the contest kicking off on SBS on May 8.