Why is Australia allowed to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest? | Eurovision Song Contest

Het Eurovisie Songfestival begon ooit als een Europees feestje. Maar al sinds 1973 is Israël onderdeel van het muziekfestival. En voor Australië is het de negende keer dat het op het Songfestival-podium staat.

Israël en Australië zijn niet de enige niet-Europese landen die hebben meegedaan of nog meedoen aan het Songfestival. Zo deed Marokko mee in 1980, behoort Cyprus geografisch gezien tot Azië en deed Turkije 34 keer mee, terwijl het land voor het grootste deel in Zuidwest-Azië ligt.

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Participation in the Eurovision Song Contest therefore has very little to do with the location of a country. It’s actually very simple: countries that are members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) can in principle participate. Parties that collaborate with the EBU can also be invited to participate.

The EBU is a partnership of mainly public broadcasters. 56 countries are now official members and there is active cooperation with another 20 countries. Various broadcasters are affiliated in the Netherlands, but AVROTROS is the broadcaster that broadcasts and supervises the Eurovision Song Contest.

A total of 52 countries have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest at some point. Currently the maximum number of countries that can participate per year is 44, this year 37 countries are participating. Australia is one of the countries that is not an official member of the EBU, but which collaborates extensively with the organization. The country has broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest every year since 1983.

In 2015, Australia was asked to participate. That was supposed to be a one-off event on the occasion of the sixtieth edition, but it was so well received that the country can now compete for a place in the final every year.

If Australia wins the Eurovision Song Contest, we won’t all go that way. Officially, the festival takes place in the country that wins, but it was agreed during Australia’s first participation that we would not go down-under if an Australian winner emerged. For Australia’s first participation, Germany and the United Kingdom were asked to organize the Eurovision Song Contest in case that country won.

Nice to know: there are a lot of countries that can participate, but have never done so. For example, Egypt and Tunisia may also participate as members of the EBU, as can Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya and Vatican City. Monaco and Hungary are among the countries that once participated, but have refrained from doing so for a few years now. This year is proof that that can change: Luxembourg is participating again for the first time in thirty years.