Australia Decides will not be used to choose the representative from Down Under, for the first time in three years.
A spokesperson for Australian broadcaster SBS confirmed to TV Tonight that they will be using an internal selection to choose their hopeful candidate for 2023.
“We are thrilled to confirm that Australia will once again compete in the 67th Eurovision Song Contest next year, with hosts Myf Warhurst and Joel Creasey at the helm. However, after three years of celebrating and working with local music artists through our Eurovision selection show, Eurovision: Australia Decides, we’ve made the difficult decision not to go ahead with the program in 2023.”
“Over the past few months, we have been exploring ways we could deliver the event to Australian audiences next year however, a variety of factors contributed to us coming to this decision.”
SBS to TV Tonight
There’s not further explanation given on why SBS decided to cancel Australia Decides, which has been used as Australia’s method of selection since 2019. In those years, Kate Miller-Heikde, Montaigne and Sheldon Riley took the crown and gave us some momentous performances.
Details about the internal selection are not made public yet.
Australia in Eurovison
Although Australians have been watching Eurovision for almost 40 years, they had their first participation in 2015. Guy Sebastian sang his groovy ‘Tonight Again‘, scoring fifth in the Grand Final. Australia got their best result in 2016, when Dami Im‘s ‘Sound of Silence‘ ended up in second place, gaining over 500 points.
Most recently, Australia was represented by Sheldon Riley and his beautiful power-ballad ‘Not The Same‘. He made it to the Grand Final, taking the 15th place with 125 points.
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