Australia debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in by invitation from the European Broadcasting Union as a "one-off" special guest to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Eurovision. On 17 November 2015, the EBU announced that SBS had been invited to participate in the 2016 contest and that Australia would once again take part. In 2015, Australia was guaranteed a spot in the final of the contest and was allowed to vote during both semi-finals and the final. For 2016, Australia would have to qualify for the final from one of two semi-finals and could only vote in the semi-final in which the nation was competing. Dami Im sang Sound of Silence and finished second in the 2016 contest. In 2019, the country was represented by Kate Miller-Heidke with "Zero Gravity," which was chosen in a national selection. Australia received ninth place in the grand final with 284 points.
On 29 August 2019, SBS announced an open submission for interested songwriters to submit their songs. The submission period lasted until 30 September 2019. SBS announced the first two participants for the national final on 8 November 2019, the next two on 19 November 2019, with the final names revealed on 16 December 2019.
Format
The Jury voted based on the performance of each act from a special preview show, which will occur the night prior to the main broadcast. The jury consisted of:
Josh Martin – SBS Commissioning Editor for Entertainment and Australia's Head of Delegation at Eurovision
Kate Miller-Heidke – winner of Australia Decides 2019
Milly Petriella – APRA AMCOS Director of Member Relations
Paul Clarke – Director of Blink TV and Creative Director of Eurovision and Eurovision – Australia Decides.
For the televote, Australia's total votes cast by the Australia public was divided by 290 to determine the number of votes that would equal 1 point. The vote total of each act was divided by this value to determine and be rounded up to the nearest whole number to determine the points received by each act. This rounding could result in slightly more than 290 points being awarded by the public. In the event that there is a tie in point totals, the tie will break in favour of the act with the higher number of votes from Australia’s vote. In the unlikely event the vote number from Australia’s Vote be identical, the Jury’s vote is used as the further tie-breaker.
Results
At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2020, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Australia was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 12 May 2020, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. However, due to COVID-19 pandemic, the contest was cancelled.
