Brutal early exit for Australia at Eurovision 2024

Australia just crashed out of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest at the first hurdle, meaning we won’t have a presence at Sunday’s grand final.

Nick Bond

@bondnickbond

less than 2 min read

May 8, 2024 - 9:50AM

Electric Fields are out of the competition.

Australia has suffered a brutal early exit at Eurovision 2024, with our entry failing to make it past the first semi-final this morning and secure a place in the Grand Final.

Australia’s entry this year is electronic music duo Electric Fields, aka vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding alongside keyboard player and producer Michael Ross.

Their song, One Milkali (One Blood), was an uplifting dance floor anthem sung partly in the Indigenous language Yankunytjatjara – but it wasn’t enough to see them join the ten acts progressing to the Eurovision Grand Final from today’s semi-final. Their performance landed them in the bottom five out of the 15 acts that performed, alongside Iceland, Poland, Moldova and Azerbaijan, who all failed to qualify.

Electric Fields are out of the competition.

It’s a major upset for Australia at Eurovision, as we’ve traditionally placed quite highly since first entering the contest almost a decade ago.

Our debut entry, Guy Sebastian, finished fifth in 2015, while a year later Dami Im gave us our best result to date, placing second with the stirring Sound of Silence. Since then we’ve had top ten placings with Isaiah (2017, #9), Kate Miller-Heidke (2019, #9) and last year with rockers Voyager (again, a #9 placing).

Aussie pop icon Jess Mauboy got lost in the mix of the 2018 contest, only managing a #20 placing with We Got Love.

The announcers reveal which 10 acts have progressed through to the final.

… and Electric Fields didn’t make the cut. Picture: AFP

But Electric Fields’ placing is the worst result for Australia since that of singer Montaigne, who fell victim to the pandemic two years in a row: The 2020 contest was cancelled, and when Montaigne re-entered the next year, Covid restrictions meant they had to perform from a studio in Australia, and failed to qualify for the grand final.

After Friday’s second semi-final, This year’s Eurovision Song Contest will take place on Sunday in Malmo, Sweden.