Tony Armstrong to host Australia’s Eurovision coverage with Courtney Act
In the annals of pop culture history, there are just a handful of truly great partnerships: Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, and ... Tony Armstrong and Courtney Act?
SBS is banking the pair will strike the kind of Hollywood chemistry that makes for great TV, confirming the former ABC breakfast presenter and Australia’s most colourfully prominent drag artist are the new hosts of its Eurovision Song Contest telecast.
The 2025 Eurovision presenters, Tony Armstrong and Courtney Act.Credit: SBS
Armstrong and Act are our third pair of Eurovision hosts since 2009. Sam Pang and Julia Zemiro hosted for eight years, and Joel Creasey and Myf Warhurst for seven years, from 2017. Australia joined the competition officially in 2015, when Guy Sebastian competed with the song, Tonight Again.
Act has been deeply involved in the competition for several years, serving as both Australia’s official score announcer, competing at Australian Decides in 2019 with a potential Eurovision song, Fight for Love, and working last year as the official backstage reporter.
“Last year, I had so much fun,” Act said. “It was so much more than I was expecting. I didn’t realise how much of a world and an ecosystem Eurovision was going to be and how much I would get sucked into being so invested in everybody.
“Then SBS reached out, and I just thought, oh my gosh, how exciting to come over,” Act said. “It was also a great foray into it, last year, to sort of be the man on the street as it were and see how it all works before being thrown into the deep end this year.”
Go-Jo, a rising pop star from WA, will represent Australia at the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Switzerland in May.Credit: James Brickwood
Armstrong and Act confirmed they did “chemistry” tests for SBS before they were signed up. “Which felt like SBS meant business,” Act said. “I had to get into drag for this never-to-be-seen chemistry test. But we got together, did some mock hosting and had fun hanging out.
“We instantly connected. It’s funny because you never quite know what level you’re going to connect on. He [Armstrong] is not as au fait with Eurovision. I have never been to a sporting match. That’s a nice juxtaposition, [a] sort of opposites-attract relationship.”
Armstrong said the pair had met previously, but the chemistry tests had helped work out how they could complement each other as hosts.
“You’re constantly navigating, trying to do a good job, trying to be funny and respectful,” Armstrong said. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve kind of worried less about what I think people are looking for … and trying to reverse engineer it, and just being the version of me, and hopefully that’s what they want.”
One thing that aligns both Armstrong and Act is that the Eurovision stage is frequently a powerful and prominent stage for both indigenous artists from various countries, and also alternative artists, including drag artists.
“The thing that connects us is music and art and being artists,” Act said. “Drag is larger than life. Eurovision is larger than life. Dare I say, Eurovision borrows from drag often. Pop culture borrows from drag often these days.”
Armstrong agreed, noting that the event’s global television audience – estimated at 163 million in 156 countries – best explained the opportunity its stage offers anyone who performs on it.
“It’s an opportunity for these artists to be taken seriously,” Armstrong said. “They get to take themselves seriously and not diminish the work they do. It can’t be understated how big of a deal this could be.
“With mainstream or conventional music, sometimes you could be asked to leave yourself at the door to sort of fit into what people expect,” he added. “Here, it feels as though it’s the other way around, we want to celebrate your difference and your uniqueness.”
Australia’s entrant for 2025 is pop singer Marty Zambotto, who performs under the stage moniker Go-Jo. His song, titled Milkshake Man, is described by SBS as “a slippery dip of childlike nostalgia into a swirl of infectious hooks and glossy, larger-than-life production”.
Armstrong and Act are both confident it is a potential competition-winning song.
“I absolutely would love to see Australia win,” Act says. “[Former Eurovision winner] Conchita Wurst messaged me before I’d even seen the music video to say she really liked it, and I was like, oh, that feels like a blessing from one of the queens of Eurovision.”
Armstrong added: “It’s a competition and as soon as the bell rings, we’re in it to win it.
“Having met Go-Jo, having listened to Milkshake Man, I think sonically it fits in, and he’s a beautiful dude, he’s very out there. I can only see reasons why we would win, which is a great position to be in.”
The Eurovision Song Contest will be held from May 13-17 and screened live on SBS and on SBS On Demand.
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