Aussie fan views on Australia's Eurovision 2025 campaign and future

Dale Roberts
Jun 12
8 min read

Updated: Jun 13

Aussievision recently conducted a survey with Australian fans about the Eurovision Song Contest 2025.

This covered general information on how they watched the show, how many times they voted and if they've been to the Contest.

However, this also asked some tough questions about Israel's participation, crowd noise and how they rated the show and EBU overall. You can see the results of that in our first article of results.

Additionally, fans were asked about SBS's coverage, Australia's performance and future in the Contest and how we should choose our artist.

In our second in a series of articles looking at the results. We're looking at their views on Australia's Eurovision 2025 campaign and our future with the Contest.

Firstly, who did we hear from?

We received 251 respondents with 220 residing in Australia.

Unfortunately, because many international fans took the survey we will present the results of fans living in Australia only. But we do acknowledge many Aussie fans live overseas.

Attendance, watching and voting.

73% have never been to the Contest, 17% have been once and 3% have been five times or more.
72% watched the Grand Final live on SBS, 3% live in the stadium, 5% on YouTube while 41% watched it delayed either On Demand or in the Prime Time replay (noting people can watch live and then the replay).
50% voted the full 20 times, while 30% didn't vote at all (this was nearly exactly the same as last year's results - 50% and 31%).
54% watched with family and friends, 34% on their own and 10% in the stadium or at an event.

2025 performance and result

Go-Jo with Milkshake Man placed 11th for Australia in the semi-finals. He missed out on advancing to the Grand Final by 10 points.

We asked fans to rate Australia's placing and entry as either: Very good, good, neutral/average, poor or very poor.

Very good - 9%

Good - 32%

Neutral/Average - 37%

Poor - 19%

Very poor - 4%

Overall, 41% rated it positively, 37% neutral, and 23% negatively.

Despite getting the same result and points (11th with 41 points), these ratings were much higher than 2024's result.

In 2024, Electric Fields were rated 29% positively, 44% neutral, and 27% negatively.

Should Australia return to Eurovision 2026?

We asked fans: should Australia return to Eurovision next year?

Yes, definitely regardless 69%

Yes, but only if change happens within the Contest - 26%

Unsure - 2%

No - 3%

Other - 0.5%

A clear majority of 95% want Australia to return , with just 3% opposed.

This is higher than the results of 89% from the 2024 survey.

The number wanting to return regardless rose from 66% to 69%.

How should Australia select their entry?

If Australia did compete, we asked fans how they would like the entry selected.

National selection show like Australia Decides - 75%

Internal choice - 10%

Unsure - 14%

Other - 1.5%

Overwhelmingly, fans want a return to a national selection show like Australia Decides (75%).

However, this was down from 80% in the 2024 survey. There has only been a small rise for an internal selection (8% to 10%), with those unsure rising from 9% to 14%.

Australia Decides was used to select Australia's entries in 2019 (Kate Miller-Heidke), 2020 (Montaigne) and 2022 (Sheldon Riley). While two entries of Voyager and Electric Fields had previously participated. Additionally, Andrew Lambrou from Australia Decides 2022 competed for Cyprus in 2023.

What form could a national selection take?

Fans were able to select multiple options with live shows in a stadium or studio getting the majority of votes.

Live show in the stadium - 74%

Live show in a TV studio - 64%

Online with live performances - 22%

Online with live studio tracks - 4%

The one option that increased from the 2024 survey was a "live show in a TV studio" which rose from 61% to 64%.

There was a small drop for the stadium (down -2%) while online options were both down -7%.

One fan summed up the feeling of many by putting this as another option: "Anything!"

Which cities would fans be willing to travel to for a national selection show?

After three editions on the Gold Coast many fans wanted somewhere different, particularly as inclement weather had impacted their experience.

Melbourne - 70%

Sydney - 59%

Brisbane - 48%

Gold Coast - 43%

Adelaide - 35%

Perth - 16%

Melbourne is the most popular by far for the second-straight year. It also rose from 64% to 70%.

Sydney (+4%), Brisbane (+1%) and the Gold Coast (+2%) all improved as the other top options for fans.

Although Adelaide trailed, it rose by +7% from last year. Perth unfortunately dropped from 21% to 16%.

How did they rate SBS's 2025 approach?

Respondents were asked to rate the SBS's coverage and other items on a five-star scale.

These were the results of the following questions:

How much confidence do you have in SBS as a broadcaster of Eurovision - 4.12 stars

This was up from 3.78 in the 2024 survey.

How would you rate the SBS broadcast of Eurovision 2025 - 4.11 stars

This was up from 3.64 last year.

How would you rate the promotion of Eurovision 2025 by SBS - 3.29 stars

This was up from 2.82 in 2024.

NEW: How would you rate the new commentators Courtney Act and Tony Armstrong - 3.80 stars

With fans often critical of commentators, this score is a strong start for the new team.

We asked fans for comments on what Australia did this year and how it could improve in the future.

Please note these are the views of fans and not Aussievision. We do not support nor condone. We do think it is important the voices of fans are shared whatever their opinion is.

Below are the main themes raised with comments made by some fans responding.

Bring Back Australia Decides / Public Input

Many, many, many respondents strongly pushed for reviving Australia Decides or introducing public input into the selection process.

“Bring back Aus Decides. Or maybe allow a public vote for a shortlist before SBS picks internally.”
“A new Australia Decides is needed… Open up a new one to unearth new talent to draw from.”
“Definitely bring back Australia Decides! Definitely need a public decision on who to send again.”
“Go back to Australia Decides & let the fans decide.”
“Have Australia Decides again.

This was by far the biggest message provided by fans in the survey.

Staging

Staging was raised as a concern.

"Australia this year was very unlucky - I think maybe the staging was a little bare - and was heavily affected by the disastrous decision to mute the audience during the show."
“At 5.10am… we all knew he was not going to qualify. It was awful… the staging killed that.”
“Milkshake man staging was a huge let down… Where on earth was the ice cream van?”
“Our staging for the last few years with the exception of Voyager has been sub par.”
“More dancers!!!! Every year the stage seems so empty and the performance would be so much more elevated with decent choreography.”

Song and artist selection approach

How SBS choose the artist and song was also raised.

“In picking our act, I wish SBS would focus primarily on the song itself and the artist's ability to sing that particular song live.”
“You have to send a singer. You have to send someone with lots of prime time experience.”
“Get artists that can sing live on stage with some confidence and number one choose a great song.”
“We need an amazing vocalist – someone like Dami Im or Kate Miller-Heidke, and better staging.”
“Avoid appealing to the TikTok fans… get back to the basics of what worked for us: strong performers, beautifully composed songs, and great staging.”

Calls for a focus on vocals

Live vocal ability was consistently cited as essential for future success.

“Number one priority… a strong live performer with a strong record…”
“Don’t send abysmal live performers like Electric Fields…”
“We need to focus on vocally strong performances and remember this is EUROvision.”
“Good artist choice and song, just need to prioritise vocal ability live.”
“You have to send a singer… the song offered no opportunity for vocal prowess.”

Support for taking creative risks

However, there was enthusiasm for risk-taking, even when it didn’t pay off.

“I loved that we took a risk on something so very Australian this year.”
“This year’s entry was brilliant… I think we should view Eurovision as a bit of fun.”
“I think the risk we took this year was worthwhile…”
“Loved seeing Australia take new risks this year.”
“Main concern is that we send quality, diversity… even if we don’t qualify.”

Budget, funding and industry support

There’s a clear call for increased funding and industry engagement to help artists succeed.

“More money needed to invest in showcasing our artists. Staging is really important.”
“SBS needs to find more sponsors to fund our entry – it was pretty evident there was not a lot of money put into the staging.”
“The federal government should provide more funding to SBS from the tourism budget for Eurovision.”
“Spend some more money on the actual acts or don’t bother sending them.”
“To achieve more successful results, SBS could come pre-prepared with adequate corporate sponsorship…”

Commentary and SBS presentation

People are keen to see more on SBS but overall were happy with Courtney and Tony as new commentators.

“Tony and Courtney were a blast!”
“Courtney and Tony were very good, but they could still do a bit more homework on the artists.”
“I just hope SBS can somehow find the funding to make more Eurovision-based programmes…”
“I wish the fan base for the show could be expanded beyond SBS and diehard ESC fans…”

Australia's role in Eurovision – Doubts and frustrations

Some respondents questioned whether Australia could ever win or should continue participating.

“We will never win. But it would be good to get to the grand final.”
“Europe's never going to let us win and why are we even there!? It's bonkers.”
“I don’t think Eurovision and Australia are benefitting…”
“Don’t think we’ll ever win the competition due to the politics of the event.”
“We should just be happy to be part of it and not throw a hissy fit.”

Promotion and media coverage

There was mixed responses for show and artist promotion with some seeing further opportunities.

"Far better artist promotion this year. I hope this continues!"
“I think Australia needs to be serious about the contest… without any radio play – Australian media interest – how is anyone in Australia meant to care?”
“SBS could do a better job of helping to promote Eurovision as a path to Aussie music charting in Europe.”
"It was great to see Go-Jo do the pre-parties and tour Europe"
“Make more Eurovision-based programmes… like when Julia Zemiro bused her way to Baku.”

Summary

As a collective Aussie fans want Australia to return to Eurovision in 2026 (95%) and would like to see a national selection show like Australia Decides used to select the artist (75%).

They would like a live show in a stadium (74%) or studio (64%) , and ideally held in either Melbourne (70%) or Sydney (59%).

Despite the non-qualification, fans were not negative about the song and result, with 41% giving it a positive rating and 37% giving it a neutral rating.

Fans have confidence in SBS (4.1 stars) and are fans of the coverage (4.1 stars), but had a lower rating for the promotion (3.3 stars). New commentators were given a high rating of 3.8 stars from sometimes hard-to-please fans.

All these ratings were up significantly on 2024.

With two non-qualifications in a row, there are significant calls for Australian fans to have a say in who is picked or for a "safe" well well-established internal pick with a strong vocal.