Harmony Week: The cultural diversity of Australia at Eurovision

This week is 'Harmony Week' which aims to celebrate the cultural diversity and the rich multiculturalism that makes up Australia.

Almost half of Australians (48.2%) have a parent born overseas, while (27.6%) were born abroad themselves.

Eurovision became the event it is today in Australia thanks to the set up of the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) in the 70s who began televising the event in 1983 for its multicultural audience.

And this migrant representation, as well as Indigenous, has shone through with the Aussie artists who have taken part at Eurovision since our debut in 2015.

Guy Sebastian

Guy Sebastian was born in Malaysia and lived there until he was six years old. He was our debut entrant finishing an impressive 5th place.

Dami Im

Dami Im was born and raised in South Korea before moving to Brisbane when she was nine years old. Dami finished in an incredible 2nd place, our best result yet.

Isaiah Firebrace

Isaiah is a Yorta Yorta and Gunditjmara man who grew up in Moama and represented Australia in Kyiv when he was just 17 years old.

Jessica Mauboy

Jessica is a Kuku Yalanji woman whose father was born in West Timor, Indonesia. She grew up in Darwin and represented Australia in 2018 after performing the interval act in 2014.

Montaigne

Jessica Cerro, aka Montaigne, has a diverse background with Argentinian, Spanish, Filipino and French heritage. Her father was a professional footballer born in Argentina and the family lived in Malaysia for several years because of his career. Montaigne unfortunately didn't get to perform on the Eurovision stage because of the cancellation in 2020 and Australia's remote participation in 2021.

Sheldon Riley

Sheldon has Filipino background through his father. His original name being Sheldon Hernandez. He competed at Eurovision 2022 and took us back to the Grand Final finishing in 15th.

Voyager

Lead singer Danny Elstrin was born in Germany and speaks fluent German while Ashley Doodkorte from the band has Dutch heritage. They, alongside their band members, will represent Australia at Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool.

Outside of Australia's acts many have competed for a country that have close heritage with including Andrew Lambrou for Cyprus (2023), Anja Nissen for Denmark (2017) and Mary-Jean O’Doherty for Armenia (2015) (plus others for the UK and Germany).

Additionally Australia Decides, our national final, has seen artists with close connections with Fiji, New Zealand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Papua New Guinea.

We look forward to continued cultural diversity from Australia's Eurovision and national final entries to truly represent the nation we are.

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