Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019
[2] Tying in with the goal of Eurovision—to showcase "the importance of bringing countries together to celebrate diversity, music and culture", the 2015 theme of "Building Bridges", and arguing that they could not hold "the world's biggest party" to celebrate the 60th edition of Eurovision without inviting Australia, the EBU announced on 10 February 2015 that the country would compete at that year's edition as a special guest participant.[2] Along with the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom), and the host country of Austria, Australia was given automatic entry into the final to "not reduce the chances" of the semi-final participants.On 14 October 2018, SBS announced that they would hold a national final for the first time to select the Australian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.[13] The jury consisted of Christer Björkman (producer of Melodifestivalen and of various Eurovision Song Contests), Fifa Riccobono (former CEO of Albert Music), Milly Petriella (Artist Service director of APRA), Josh Martin (SBS Commissioning Editor for Entertainment) and Paul Clarke (Head of the Australian Eurovision Delegation) who each distributed points from 1-8, 10 and 12 during the preview show on 8 February 2019 and had a total of 290 points to award.The number of votes each song gained was then divided by the quota and rounded up to the nearest integer to determine the points an entry would be awarded.On 6 April, Miller-Heidke performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, hosted by Cornald Maas and Marlayne, to over 4,500 spectators.Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency.This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.