According to our friends at Aussievision, Australian broadcaster SBS will not participate in the newly-announced “Eurovision Song Contest Asia”, due to be held in Bangkok on November 14.
No participation from SBS in Bangkok
Ten countries were announced as the first participants of the new Contest, with the door left open for more broadcasters to join the show in time for Bangkok 2026. Australia, however, was not part of this initial line-up, despite already participating in the main Eurovision Song Contest.
Contacted by Aussievision, Australia’s public broadcaster SBS confirmed that they did not intend to take part.
SBS has long recognised the strong appetite for Eurovision and its unique ability to connect audiences through music and shared cultural moments.
SBS Statement to aussieviesion
While SBS is not competing in this newly announced Eurovision Asia initiative, we’re pleased to see continued interest in celebrating these kinds of connections across the region and will be watching with interest as it develops.
Another vision of Eurovision Asia?
As Aussiviesion remarked, this comes a bit as a surprise considering Australia and SBS’s involvement in the first versions of the “Eurovision Asia” project, which was first announced in August 2017, with a clear engagement from Australia and interest from a flurry of countries, from Kazakhstan to Vanuatu. The project remained “in development” for a long time, before being quietly cancelled.
SBS still saw the Asian edition as a priority behind the scenes after the pandemic, according to Paul Clarke (who had previously worked as the Australian Head of Delegation), but they have stepped back from the current version of the project.
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Proving ourselves in the longest song contest in Europe is a challenge but, we are always open to a new challenge and if all goes well, this year could be our best chance to make an impression.
Winning isn’t everything, however, and we could be reinventing our entries and recycling our choices for ever and never reach that zenith of song scripting..!
As we are in reality a part of Asia, it would be great to participate in the Asia version as we look for a more suitable way to relate to our Asian neighbours so that we may be seen to be a more interactive partner, willing to respond to an Asian view of ourselves.
We may have once been settled by European and other western groups, however, we are a favourable destination for many parts of Asia now and, indeed vice versa. We need to have a better understanding of our closest neighbours and for our next challenge, open up a more congenial conversation through music and song.