We have our first four acts announced for The Eurovision – Australia Decides, which is Australia’s national selection show for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. This is the first time that Australia has decided to select a participant through a national selection show, opting to choose internal selection for their past entries.
SBS has been hinting about the national selection show for some time now, first confirming The Eurovision – Australia Decides, then announcing that it will be hosted in Gold Coast, Queensland by Myf Warhurst and Joe Creasey; and, just days ago, the first four acts were teased.
Those four teasers led onto these four acts being officially announced, and Australia is proving that established acts are willing to compete, proving that they have what it takes to represent Australia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The first four acts are Sheppard, Kate Miller-Heidke, Electric Fields, and Mark Vincent.
There are definitely more artists to announce and after these four we’re definitely excited about who else will be revealed.
More About Australia’s First Four Acts For The Eurovision – Australia Decides
Sheppard
This indie-pop band hails from Brisbane, Queensland and already hit it big with international charting sensation song “Geronimo”. The group consists of six members (which is the exact amount of people allowed on the Eurovision stage at one time), who are George Sheppard, Amy Sheppard, Michael Butler, Jason Bovino, Emma Sheppard, and Dean Gordon.
They have released two albums to date, 2014’s Bombs Away which charted at number two in Australia and has also charted at 27 in Germany, 31 on the US Billboard 200, 40 in Switzerland, 51 in The Netherlands, and 81 in the UK; their sophomore album, 2018’s Watching The Sky didn’t chart internationally but hit number one in Australia and number nine on New Zealand’s Heatseekers Album chart.
On the singles front, “Geronimo” was a complete success, hitting number one in Australia and charting all over Europe and in the US charts. In the Czech Republic it hit number one on the Radio Top 100 and number five on the Singles Digital Top 100, in Austria it hit number two, and hit number three in Germany and Italy. It also charted at number eight in Sweden, New Zealand, Mexico, and Slovakia’s Radio Top 100, while it charted at number nine in Belgium. In the UK it broke the Top 40, charting at 36, and hit number 53 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Their follow-ups haven’t had quite the success of this single, and their recent songs have been charting in the 200s in Australia.
Kate Miller-Heidke
This female Australian singer is from Brisbane also and has been trained classically, although she has followed an alternative pop music career. She has released four solo albums to date all of which have charted in Australia, 2007’s Little Eve peaked at number 11, 2008’s Couriouser charted at number two, so did 2012’s Nightflight, and 2014’s O Vertigo! peaked at number four. She has also released two albums as part of bands Elsewhere and Fatty Gets A Stylist. She’s also dropped live albums, one compilation album and albums as part of a soundtrack.
Her biggest single to date was “The Last Day On Earth” which peaked at number three in Australia.
Electric Fields
If you watched Eurovision 2016 Semi-Final 2, you’ll have heard Petra Mede and Måns Zelmerlöw explain what Eurovision is, and during that segment, they run through a list of all the languages that have been sung on the Eurovision stage, however, if Electric Fields wins Australia’s national selection show, we’ll have a new one to add, as this duo release songs in Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, which are two languages that are very similar and are Australian Aboriginal languages.
Electric Fields are a duo consisting of Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross from Adelaide, South Australia, with the former being the vocalist. Separately, Michael Ross’ original track “Equal Love” was used online by Gay Marriage USA; whereas Zaachariaha Fielding was in the duo ZK who were contestants on the third season of Australia’s version of The Voice where they came joint fourth place and charted on Australia’s ARIA chart with their version of John Lennon’s “Imagine” – quick note, that year of The Voice, Anja Nissen won, who was the representative of Denmark in Eurovision 2017 with the song “Where I Am”, finishing in 20th place of the Grand Final.
Mark Vincent
He was heavily rumoured and was identified early on from the teasers that SBS released days ago. Mark Vincent is a classical singer from Caringbah, New South Wales. He is best known for winning the third season of Australia’s Got Talent.
Since 2009, he has released a total of eight studio albums and one compilation album. His first album, 2009’s My Dream – Mio Visione, is his best charting album to date, hitting number two on Australia’s ARIA chart, however, he hit the top five three more times with 2010’s Compass, 2016’s Together in collaboration with Marina Prior, and 2017’s A Tribute To Mario Lanza, the latter of which peaked at number three.
There are more acts to come, we wonder who will be announced next. We certainly cannot wait to find out, as these acts are pretty established in Australia, so there’s bound to be more.
The Eurovision – Australia Decides will take place on 9 February 2019 with a 50/50 jury and televote to determine their Eurovision representative. It will be hosted on the Gold Coast, Queensland by Myf Warhurst and Joe Creasey.