Eurovision 2019: Courtney Act, Sheppard lead race to represent Australia
Two artists are leading the race to represent Australia at the 2019 Eurovision song contest — but anything can happen.
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Ella Hooper and Tania Doko are on the steroids for their gig-worn vocal cords.
Courtney Act and Sheppard swap get-to-know-you niceties before sharing how nervous they are about their performance.
And Kate Miller-Heidke is crossing everything her outfit fits perfectly when it arrives from Melbourne.
It’s the storm before showtime at the first-ever Eurovision: Australia Decides event, with the 10 artists vying for the chance to represent us at the world’s biggest singing contest in May in the middle of rehearsals.
MORE: Kate Miller-Heidke: ‘I’m a hypocrite’
All of the contestants, including Mark Vincent, Aydan, Electric Fields, Leea Nanos and Alfie Arcuri, have unveiled their songs for the big night with fans sampling them via streaming services and iTunes.
If you crunch the numbers, the artists with the most streams via Spotify and YouTube ahead of the Saturday night show are Courtney Act, Sheppard, Electric Fields, Kate Miller-Heidke and Alfie Arcuri.
But few of the artists are tracking the pre-show fan love.
They are too consumed with getting the performance right, ironing out lighting and stage production, getting costumes fitted, doing a gazillion interviews and trying to quell those butterflies.
“I am kinda freaked out right now,” Act said after her rehearsal.
“They’re a real solidarity in our artistic insecurities; it’s good to know we are all twisted balls of nerves.
“This is such a unique experience. It’s like a music awards show without the awards; we just skip straight to the Gold Logie.”
Australia’s three-decade love-loathe affair with Eurovision has grown in the past five years since we were invited to join the party, with Guy Sebastian, Dami Im, Isaiah and Jess Mauboy hand-picked by SBS to have a shot at the title.
This year SBS are giving the fans the choice with their votes combined with an expert jury to determine our 2019 contestant.
Killing Heidi frontwoman and solo artist Hooper jokes that competing at Eurovision may not have been on her list of music mountains to conquer but “thought it was worth the risk”.
The “alternative” contestant in the eclectic line-up reckons she has a “snowflake’s chance in hell of winning” but loves the prospect of showcasing her unique voice on the Eurovision stage.
“I do think it is a career-building opportunity,” she said.
“Pop artists just don’t have these kind of big opportunities to perform on television in Australia and the audience might not be my audience but Eurovision lets me know people who haven’t heard me since Weir or Mascara that I am still vital as an artist.”
Doko and Arcuri both submitted a handful of songs each for consideration with the Australian Head of Delegation and show producer Paul Clarke asking them to perform their compositions only weeks ago.
Based in Sweden where she is a respected songwriter, Doko was already in Australia as her duo Bachelor Girl was touring with John Farnham when she got the call up.
“They are calling me the veteran, bless them,” she joked.
She said the chance to showcase original songs written by local artists and composers instead of the covers demanded by television talent quests like The Voice was rare in Australia.
“Australian radio isn’t really giving love to Australian pop songs,” she said.
“I think this show is not only a good way of getting more Australian fans involved in Eurovision but it also gives it credibility.”
If you mention just how unique and different every artist and song is to the contenders, they will all immediately cite the electronic pop duo Electric Fields as exemplifying the eclectic spirit of the inaugural Australia Decides contest.
The fact there are three queer artists in the field — Electric Fields, Courtney Act and Arcuri — has been widely cited and celebrated by all the contestants.
Arcuri’s song To Myself was written as a sonic letter to his 10-year-old self who was wrestling with his sexual identity and feared what his life would be as a gay man.
Since its release, he has been swamped by fans all over the world sharing how the song has resonated with them.
Act said Australia’s first selection show mirrored Eurovision’s ethos of diversity, citing not only the individual diversity but also the sonic smorgasbord as evidence by Miller-Heidke’s wildly ambitious melding of pop and opera with her song Zero Gravity.
“Where else are you going to find anything as artistically diverse and experimental as this? It’s not about fitting into a pop mould,” Act said.
“In a way, I’m subverting that pop mould; I look like a pop star, I sound like a pop star but she also has a penis.”
** Eurovision: Australia Decides airs on SBS from 8.30pm AEDT.
THE ARTISTS AND SONGS
Leea Nanos, Set Me Free — more than 27,000 Spotify and YouTube streams.
Alfie Arcuri, To Myself — more than 98,000 streams.
Sheppard, On My Way — more than 340,000 streams.
Ella Hooper, Data Dust — more than 21,000 streams.
Tania Doko, Piece Of Me — more than 4000 streams.
Electric Fields, 2000 and Whatever — more than 128,000 streams.
Kate Miller-Heidke, Zero Gravity — more than 110,000 streams
Mark Vincent, This Is Not The End — more than 33,000 streams
Courtney Act, Fight For Love — more than 345,000 streams.
Aydan, Dust — more than 87,000 streams.
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