What is your name and where are you from?
My name is Chloe & I’m from Rockhampton in Queensland Australia! Bloody hot up here in the summer.
Rockhampton, the beef capital of Australia! I know it well - I grew up the road in regional Queensland. And can confirm it is bloody hot! ~ Dale, Aussievision.
Tell us something interesting about you?
I’m an equestrian, so I ride horses and love jumping & just spending time with them. I also have a passion for aviation!
On to Eurovision itself – when did you first get into the contest?
Well I’m actually a newbie to the contest, so basically when Australia was first competing in the contest, so 2015. I’d heard of Eurovision and knew the competition consisted of countries competing but strangely didn’t hear about the song aspect of it haha. Then I saw Guy Sebastian’s performance and loved it, so I looked into things more & here I am!
We love newbies, and what better way to get into it from Australia competing. That's what it's all about! ~ Aussievision
Do you have a favourite Eurovision year? Why is it your fav?
Ah this is gonna seem a bit boring for a lot of people, I apologize, but since I’ve only watched 3yrs worth, it would probably have to be 2016. Why? Well first of all Petra and Måns, need I say more? Haha, to me they were the best hosts, loved them, they made it very fun and enjoyable for me to watch & of course we can’t forget it was the year our Dami was literally only 23 points off winning the entire thing!
Which Eurovision song:
Is your favourite?
Gotta be Alexander Rybak with Fairytale! He was one of the people that caught my eye in Love Love Peace Peace, so I checked out his performance and let’s just say I became a fan haha
We have nothing nice to say about this! :P
Is overrated?
Omg, Sweden 2016. Apologies to those who liked that one but I really don’t see how people thought so highly of it, I just found it so flat and boring. I even saw comments under the youtube video saying it should of won? Yea, nah #sorrynotsorry
Now this we can agree on
Was robbed?
I mean, you could probably already guess my answer, but 100% Dami Im with Sound of Silence! I reckon I’ll forever be bitter about that haha
Had the best live performance?
I’m gonna have to say Sergey Lazerev from Russia. I’ve watch his performance so many times! The song & just the whole stage show, it was amazing, so combined it made a great performance for me!
Incredible live staging
Did you last play?
I’ve got my own little Eurovision playlist on spotify so the last one that played I think was Alfred and Amaia - Tu Canción
Is your guilty pleasure?
Being an Alexander Rybak fan, I was over the moon (as you guys might remember haha) that he was going to be competing in the Norway NF for ESC2018, then I listened to his song and um….yea….ha, But since I did love him, I listened to it quite a lot trying to see if it would grow on me & tbh it didn’t for a while but as time went on, it got catchy and I found myself humming it a lot, so it became like a guilty pleasure to me, even the cheesiest parts like “scobe dobede ba ba” I know, but sometimes I just can’t help myself haha
It has it's moments but yes that is definitely a guilty pleasure you have!
Any other interesting honourable mentions?
Oh! I’ve gotta give a shoutout to Christbelle with Taboo this year! I’m gonna be there cheering on Malta in the Semis cause I just really really do love that song (it needs to be put on spotify already!), I had it stuck in my head for 2 days straight. I always find myself going back and watching the NF performance! Also side note, even though I’m a newbie to Eurovision, I have done my fair share of research, in terms of winners & along the way I’ve learnt what Eurovision fans like in a song, what they don’t like in a song etc, e.g. ballads! & sometimes I’ll just be on youtube watching past performances and even the voting segments, just seeing how its all evolved over the years is crazy. But yea, so I’m not completely clueless about the past! haha
Don't worry about being relatively new, we all start somewhere and going through the history is the best thing you can do. You're definitely part of the fandom!
Do you follow the national finals?
If so have any songs caught your attention so far this year? This year tbh is the first year I’ve actually really gone and listened to a lot of the songs from a few of the NF’s, but so many have happened all at once recently I just haven’t kept up haha
Why should Australia be in Eurovision?
Well when we were given the opportunity to compete and asked to come back the following years, we took it seriously and we always will in terms of what we send to Eurovision. We’re not here to muck around, we’re here to show Europe what we’ve got to offer. We’re also a very multicultural country, for example, I’ve served people from Ireland, Scotland, UK, America, South Africa, India, the Philippines & New Zealand, all in the 2yrs that I’ve worked at my current job.
Are you happy with Jessica Mauboy as our choice for Lisbon?
Tbh I’ve never really been a big fan of hers, so I wasn’t over the moon when I found out, but I was content. I feel it could go either way, but I’ll be fully supporting her throughout Eurovision, I’m just praying she has written a great song! I do love that she has the passion and drive to be in the contest and compete, she wants to be there which I think will really shine through in her performance!
We're praying as well!
Sea of Flags, Tonight Again, Sound of Silence or Don’t Come Easy?
Definitely Sound of Silence by Dami Im! I’m actually travelling down to the Gold Coast with my family to see her live in concert (front row might I add) at The Star in the beginning of April this year, so I’m hoping she’ll be singing it there, I’d really love to witness her singing it live!
Thank you Chloe!