Australia is able to vote in both Semi-Finals, and also in the Grand Final – but of course, we can’t vote for ourselves. If you were up at 5:00 am yesterday morning to watch the First Semi-Final broadcast like I was, you’d have seen that there are a few ways of voting: SMS, phone and via the official Eurovision app. There’s only a 15 minute voting window each broadcast, so if you’re not up super early tomorrow for the Second Semi-Final or Sunday morning for the Grand Final, you’ll miss out on your chance to vote – they’re not counting any votes that come though during SBS’s delayed night-time broadcasts this weekend.
In any case, only 50 per cent of the televote counts towards the final score Australia awards anyway. The other 50 per cent is determined by Australia’s jury, which is made up of record label exec Amanda Pelman, radio host Ash London, singer (and Russell Crowe’s ex-wife) Danielle Spencer, Bluejuice frontman and music journo Jake Stone and showbiz reporting supremo Richard Wilkins.
While I’m not entirely sure of the make-up of other countries’ juries, I have to say that whoever picked ours was pretty on-point. Dickie Wilkins is made for Eurovision, and Jake Stone has also had some interesting comments to make about the contest in the media. By the way, did you know Wilkins was a trained violinist? The things you learn on the internet.
So, once our televoting scores are combined with the jury’s scores, Australia’s votes are divided up into the traditional 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points which are awarded to our top ten countries. In the Semi-Finals, these are sent through to the Eurovision boffins who add them all together before the presenters announce the top ten countries who’ve scored the highest number of votes across the board.
However, in the Grand Final, each country elects a spokesperson to deliver their votes in a live cross – and to be honest, this is often the most entertaining part of the night. Usually it results in mangled English, effusive thanks to the host nation and plenty of awkward moments. SBS – who have done a pretty awesome job of the whole Eurovision experience, it must be said – have chosen none other than their biggest celebrity to deliver our scores. Check out the reveal:
Lee Lin Chin is a pretty genius choice – she’s shown she has a great sense of humour, and she will no doubt be wearing something amazing. A lot of other countries also provide prominent TV presenters to deliver their scores, whereas others nominate their previous year’s Eurovision representative. Clearly the UK heard about our excellent idea to send a beloved TV personality, and have chosen Nigella Lawson to read out their scores on Saturday night.
Regardless of the final result, it’s pretty exciting that Australia’s now officially part of the Eurovision universe – now let’s not muck it up by giving our douze points to Russia or something ridiculous!
