Creative Director for SBS Eurovision believes Delta Goodrem can deliver top result for Australia
- Emma Garrie
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Paul Clarke, Creative Director for SBS Eurovision, believes Delta Goodrem may be the artist capable of delivering Australia one of its strongest Eurovision results yet.
In an exclusive interview with leading Australian television blog TV Tonight, Clarke, who was the Head of Delegation for Australia from 2015 to 2019, says Australia is capable of finishing inside the Top 4, or even higher, in Vienna.
“You never know what’s going to happen in the competition. You really don’t, until things really start to heat up. I’d say that we’re in the top three or four this year, and possibly even the top two,”
According to Clarke, Eclipse has every ingredient needed for Eurovision success: emotion, a musical hook, a build, a key change, and high notes! The accompanying music video — filmed on sand dunes outside Newcastle — has quickly elevated Australia’s standing among Eurovision fans and has the song currently sitting in 6th place in the odds with bookmakers after the completion of semi-final 1.
Importantly, Clarke feels Australia is benefiting from not carrying the burden of outright favouritism.
“I think in this instance, it’s good not to be the absolute favourite, because there’s a lot of pressure on those people...we’re progressing day by day, really well (with) two good individual rehearsals.”
While Australia has historically performed strongly with juries but less consistently with televoters, Clarke believes Goodrem has the potential to connect with audiences across Europe, some of who may question why Australia is even competing at the contest.
“Australia is generally in the top two or three of the jury vote and we’re much lower on the televote...but we have scored well in the past. Guy Sebastian and Dami both got really high audience votes".
"In the last few years, we haven’t done so well with audiences, but it’s not like we’ve contrived this to appeal to an audience vote. You have to do artistic things in a way that suits the project and the person and you hope that the audience goes, ‘I love that.’ You just never know until the votes come in.”
With Australia's best result so far being Dami Im's second place in 2016, Clarke also believes Goodrem possesses the exact qualities required to thrive on the Eurovision stage.
“She’s got a competitive spirit like Dami Im. She is a lioness,” he said. “When you see her on that stage, she is genetically engineered for this job.”
Clarke leaned on years of music industry relationships to secure Goodrem for the Contest. The pair already had a Eurovision connection through Bella Paige's 2015 Australian Junior Eurovision entry My Girls of which Delta co-wrote.
"It was a great song" said Clarke. "And I was really struck that she gave that to us to use.”
After narrowly missing qualification for two consecutive years with Electric Fields and Go-Jo, Clarke believed it was time for SBS to make a bold move as to who Australia's 2026 representative might be.
“We just really thought about, ‘Who haven’t we asked yet? Who might be available?’” Clarke explained. The turning point came during a private listening session at Delta’s home, where she played several songs written for her forthcoming album Pure. One track immediately stood apart. We had an incredible day at her place where she played through five or six songs she’d written,” Clarke told TV Tonight.
“One of them was just so moving. Everybody cried, and we went, ‘Eclipse is the one!"
All will be revealed on Friday morning Australian time when Goodrem takes to the stage in the second semi-final, aiming to secure a place in Sunday’s Grand Final. Clarke remains confident that Delta and the creative team have done everything possible to deliver a strong result:
“It’s just a case of executing what you want to do creatively, and whether that captures Europe or not. You never know until the night. You really don’t. And the one thing that I can say is that...we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing and getting it better and better."
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