Australia’s 2020 Eurovision entry revealed

Amid tough competition, Australians have chosen the artist we’ll send to Rottedam to represent us at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

The artist who will represent Australia at Eurovision 2020 has been selected after 10 hopefuls battled it out in an epic live television spectacular.

Montaigne was chosen to represent Australia with her song Don’t Break Me.

She received the highest score from the judges of 54 points, and the second highest score from the audience of 53 points, beating Casey Donovan for the crown.

Montaigne will represent Australia at Eurovision.

Casey Donovan performing on Saturday.

Having picked up an ARIA Award and multiple spots on Triple J’s Hottest 100, Montaigne has seen major success in the past few years.

The indie artist said that the “opportunity to release the part of me that is dramatic and extreme” was what excited her most about Eurovision.

“I manage to do it without a massive international music event as impetus, but on the big stage in Europe in front of millions would be everything the drama queen egomaniac inside me could want and more,” she said.

Think Montaigne's performance had a bit of everything that could get through & win tonight.💫🌟👌Amarossi, Diana & Casey were a bit 2010 & a bit too old school for Eurovision 2020, but still had good voices, but no real theme for #Eurovision #AustraliaDecides #AusDecides

— 💎💧Princess Gemma (@Gemmasparkle) February 8, 2020

Montaigne really out here with the best song and actually intriguing staging #AustraliaDecides #AusDecides

— The BA Test Kitchen (@gourmet_monks) February 8, 2020

@actualmontaigne's staging was a risk because not everyone will get what it's about. It was raw, emotional and is the only one other than @MitchTambo who actually moved around on stage. Not to mention her Britney mic didn't have the proper sound levels... #AustraliaDecides

— Kent Jacob Codilla (@kcodilla) February 8, 2020

Ten artists competed in the TV battle Eurovision: Australia Decides, aired on SBS live from the Gold Coast on Saturday night. A mix of established Aussie names and up-and-comers competed for the honour of representing Australia: Casey Donovan, Vanessa Amorosi, Mitch Tambo, iOTA, Montaigne, Didirri, Diana Rouvas, Jack Vidgen, Jordan-Ravi and Jaguar Jonze.

Montaigne will jet off to Rotterdam, Netherlands, to represent Australia at the 65th edition of Eurovision in May.

There was also huge applause after Dami Im, who performed two songs as part of the Eurovision special, announced she would enter a song in next year’s contest.

WHY AUSTRALIA COMPETES

This year’s Australia Decides hopefuls.

This year will mark the sixth time Australia has performed in the annual song contest, despite the fact we are not part of Europe and no one really knows how we’ve managed to become part of the furniture.

Australia first entered the competition with national treasure Guy Sebastian back in 2015, who did us proud and managed to come fifth with his catchy song Tonight Again.

This was supposed to be a one-off thing, with organisers allowing us a wildcard entry that year because we’d loyally broadcasted the event on SBS since 1983.

But they welcomed us back again the following year with The X Factor superstar Dami Im, who had an absolute blinder with her electrifying tune Sound of Silence.

Im was a hit across Europe, and was crowned runner up in the grand finale; our most successful outcome to date.

Isaiah Firebrace represented the nation in 2017 and came ninth, while Aussie sweetheart Jessica Mauboy had a crack the following year but ranked poorly, coming in at 20th.

Singer-songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke carried us back into the top 10 last year with her showstopping rendition of Zero Gravity placing ninth — frankly, that was about eight places lower than she deserved.

Joel Creasey and Myf Warhurst will once again host Eurovision for Aussie audiences this year.

Last year, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced Australia had finally cemented its place in the contest until 2023, meaning we don’t have to awkwardly wait to see if we’re invited each year.

So it turns out it’s actually pretty easy to be eligible for Eurovision. Firstly, you have to be invited. Secondly, you must be part of the EBU, which SBS joined back in 1979.

Jon Ola Sand, executive supervisor of the contest on behalf of the EBU, said in February last year: “We are delighted that Australia has become a more permanent member of the Eurovision Song Contest family.

“Australians have long been huge fans of the event with a great number of loyal viewers year on year, and when they were invited to participate in the 60th-anniversary edition of the contest, we couldn’t have imagined quite how popular their artists would become.

“It was a natural progression for us to agree to their inclusion as a participant for the next five years as they bring so much to the table.”

Wouldn’t it be joyous if one year we won when we’re not even technically supposed to be there?

Unfortunately if we do take the top gong, the following year’s contest won’t be held on our shores, and would instead be co-hosted by Australia and organised by the SBS, in any of the 56 EBU member countries.