Isaiah Firebrace, Paulini and Jaguar Jonze are chasing 2022 Eurovision glory

Isaiah Firebrace has ‘unfinished business’ with Eurovision while Paulini is shooting for the big ballad vote when they compete at Australia Decides in February.

Isaiah Firebrace, Jaguar Jonze and Paulini are lining up to take their shot at representing Australia at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest.

Proving that writing for Eurovision is serious songwriting business, more than 700 tracks were submitted to the SBS song portal for their Australia Decides selection show in February.

There will be a total of 10 artists competing to be our 2022 Eurovision representative. Some will have written their own tracks, others will be selected from the portal and paired with singers.

“This year we received over 700 songs from Australian songwriters, with a handful co-written by American and European songwriters,” creative director Paul Clarke said.

Jaguar Jonze, aka Deena Lynch, is back for another shot at Australia Decides.

This will be the first Australia Decides contest in two years, after the pandemic shutdown and border closures put the music industry on hold in March last year.

It’s no surprise SBS would bring back past members of Australia’s Eurovision family to have another tilt at the title as diehard fans love a household pop star name.

Firebrace, who came ninth with his song Don’t Come Easy in Kiev in 2017, will shake things up by performing with a secret duet partner who insiders have said is a female songwriter.

Isaiah Firebrace will be attempting the difficult Eurovision duet with a mystery songwriting partner.

“When I first represented Australia at Eurovision in 2017, I was 17, it was my first time in Europe and I feel like everything was a blurry dream that went by so quickly – I’ve grown so much as a singer, a performer and as a person since then and I’ve definitely got unfinished business,” he said.

“I can’t tell you anything more except that I’m singing a duet with someone incredible and that we co-wrote the song.”

Indie pop sensation Jaguar Jonze, aka Deena Lynch, came sixth with her dramatic performance of Rabbit Hole at the 2020 Australia Decides show.

But since that electrifying set, her profile has exploded in the alternative pop scene with a succession of EPs and her work as the leading artist advocate pushing for the Australian music industry to address its toxic workplace culture.

Lynch courageously shared the sexual harassment she allegedly suffered at the hands of two industry professionals, and recently released a single Who Died And Made You King calling out industry leaders who failed to take action to support women who had been subject to sexual harm or discrimination.

Jaguar Jonze will bring that edgy something to the Australia Decides stage.

“Performing for my chance to represent Australia at Eurovision would be a creative dream come true for me as both a musician and visual artist,” she said.

“To be honest, some of the fans I’ve connected with from the last time I performed are the very reason why I’m here again and was able to fight through some challenging career obstacles.

“I can’t wait to show everyone what I have planned, because it will be bigger and more vulnerable than anything Jaguar Jonze has ever done before.”

Musical theatre star Paulini joins past Australian Idol alumni Guy Sebastian, Jessica Mauboy and Casey Donovan in Team Eurovision and promises to “belt out the big notes” at the contest.

Paulini will be the 2022 pop ballad belter to beat at the Eurovision selection trials.

“Eurovision to me is like the Olympics for singers. It brings together so many countries and cultures, and while it’s a competition, I see it as uniting much of the world through music,” she said.

The announcement of the return of Firebrace and Jaguar Jonze to the Australia Decides stage next year could mean Dami Im is not going ahead with her bid to represent us in Italy in May.

She shocked fans last year when she announced during the selection show that she wanted another shot to win the title after being Australia’s most successful campaigner, coming second in Sweden in 2016.

Toowoomba singer songwriter Jude York had his song entry chosen for Australia Decides.

Indie songwriter Jude York from Toowoomba, Queensland, is celebrating his pop ballad being chosen by SBS to be given to one of the Australia Decides singers.

“To think of my song being shared on such a monumental platform is truly mind-blowing. I wrote it with the amazing Billy Stonecipher about staying hopeful that dreams can come true,” York said.

“And now to have this opportunity as a queer artist in regional Queensland, I’ve never had a better reason to believe in that message.”

The Eurovision – Australia Decides 2022 will air on SBS on February 26.