Synth band Voyager winning hearts and votes for Australia to remain in Eurovision Song Contest
In what could be Australia’s final tilt at Eurovision, Voyager is already proving popular playing sold out gigs in Europe.
As Australia’s deal to compete at the Eurovision Song Contest expires this year, our first band, and possibly final entrant, Voyager is rallying behind a Remain campaign.
The synth metal band has been winning hearts and courting votes on the “preparty” circuit throughout Europe and London this month where artists get to flex their live muscle in front of diehard fans.
They played to 5000 screaming Eurovision fans in Amsterdam, sold out a club gig in London, mixed with diplomats at official receptions and watched as their song Promise adds daily to its two million streams and views. Voyager are living the dream they have doggedly pursued for eight years.
As the five band members head to host city Liverpool to begin official rehearsals this week, frontman and immigration lawyer Danny Estrin hopes Australia will stay in the contest beyond 2023.
“We’re starting the Remain campaign. We’re saying if you like our song give us 12 points, if you want Australia to remain, then at least 10. I don’t think that’s how it works …,” Estrin said.
There is no update on Australia’s future at the bombastic music Olympics which SBS has broadcast here for 40 years.
Any announcement of an extension to the performance deal – or farewell, it’s been fun, Australia – will come from the European Broadcasting Union which runs the contest.
“SBS and production partner Blink TV have secured Australia’s participation until 2023 and there are no updates on Australia’s future in the Eurovision Song Contest at this stage,” the network responded to News Corp Australia.
If it is to be Australia’s final contest, Voyager will take us out with a bang. Surely, there will be pyros; Estrin refuses to confirm beyond saying there will be a surprise.
Estrin and his bandmates – Simone Dow, Scott Kay, Ashley Doodkorte and Alex Canion – have the top-shelf live skills required to impress the contest’s notoriously sceptical viewers. They know what they’re doing after recording and touring the world for more than 20 years.
And Voyager have a worthy contest song. Promise was made-for-Eurovision, with its Duran Duran meets metal fusion, replete with keytar, crunching guitars and a well-placed guttural growl.
Its lyrics also subscribe to the Eurovision playbook for an aspirational anthem; its “Ah-oh, ah-oh, ah-oh, ah-oh, oh-oh, promise me it’s gonna be alright” chorus hook is singalong bait.
What the band could not have predicted is for the pop metal track to resonate outside the Eurovision bubble.
Their inbox has been flooded by “beautiful”, emotional emails from new and old fans sharing how Promise has become a deeply personal addition to their daily playlist.
“We got one from a woman saying ‘my non-verbal autistic son responds to the song and he doesn’t respond to anything,’” bassist Canion said.
“And we had an email yesterday from someone who is at their wit’s end and is using Promise as a message to herself that it’s going to be okay, that they’re going to get this lifesaving treatment from the pharmaceutical company for their child who has a rare genetic disorder.”
At a recent reception for Voyager at the official residence of our Ambassador to The Netherlands, one of the diplomat guests told Estrin that Promise served as a sonic salve against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
While last year’s winner Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra won their country the right to host the 2023 contest, it is being held in Liverpool – UK’s Sam Ryder came second in 2022 – because of the ongoing war.
Several of the 37 entries to be performed at Eurovision this year are unmistakably anti-war protest songs or aspirational pro-peace anthems.
“At the reception, there were diplomats from other European countries, and one came up and said this is such a great song for Europe right now because there’s so much chaos, so much uncertainty, there’s a war going on at Europe’s doorstep. And they said (the lyric) ‘Promise me it’s going to be all right’ was resonating with so many people,” Estrin said.
“As a songwriter, you couldn’t hope for more. You’re hoping for people to go ‘This song help me through something, or it’s made me feel good’, that’s the cherry on top.”
Voyager have been throwing their hat in the ring to go to Eurovision ever since Australia was first invited to compete in 2015.
They came second to Sheldon Riley at the 2022 Australia Decides sing-off, which SBS canned this year, instead reverting to an internal selection process.
Voyager has already has a solid fanbase in Europe which made them a strategic creative choice this year as the EBU decided the qualifying countries from each semi-final would be decided solely on the fan vote and not count the jury votes.
Fan and jury votes will be combined as usual to decide the Grand Final winner.
“We have the backing of an amazing fan community; our fans are generally just massive nerds who care passionately about something and get behind us, and behind the song, they’ll be out there on all the forums spruiking it,” Estrin said,
“That’s why it was really important to not just write a pop song for Eurovision, but make sure we stick to what we do, the pop element and the metal.”
The 2023 Eurovision Song Contest is broadcast from 5am on May 10 and 12 (semi-finals) and May 14 (grand final).
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Originally published as Synth band Voyager winning hearts and votes for Australia to remain in Eurovision Song Contest
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