Montaigne to represent Australia at Eurovision 2021

After Eurovision was cancelled this year, it had been undecided if Australia's 2020 representative would be gracing the Eurovision stage in 2021.

That changed today with SBS announcing that Montaigne would indeed be the representative for Australia in 2021.

Montaigne was, understandably, delighted saying:

“I’m so happy to receive this good news during such times. At home, we’ve started this ritual of cracking open a fortune cookie daily and reading our fortunes to each other and I got one that read, "You will be sharing great news with all the people you love.” I’m so glad it came true!”

She also recorded a video for the SBS Eurovision Twitter account that the announcement is "extremely exciting, I'm very grateful, I'm very keen to make new music, to produce a new song and figure out a new performance for next year."

The EBU had already indicated that none of the songs from 2020 would be eligible to compete in 2021. However we will see many artists return next year including:

• Austria - Vincent Bueno

• Azerbaijan - Efendi

• Belgium - Hooverphonic

• Bulgaria - Victoria

• Georgia - Tornike Kipiani

• Greece - Stefania

• Israel - Eden Alene

• Romania - Roxen

• Spain - Blas Cantó

• Switzerland - Gjon's Tears

• The Netherlands - Jeangu Macrooy

• Ukraine - Go_A

What does this mean for Australia Decides next year, well unfortunately it won't go ahead with Australia's Head of Delegation Josh Martin saying,

"Although SBS and fans alike will miss Eurovision – Australia Decides 2021, this will honour Australia’s decision and give Montaigne the chance to show the world what we already know – that she is an incredibly talented, exciting and original artist. Our focus will now shift to a new song for 2021 and Montaigne is not wasting a moment of this period of isolation with many new ideas already on the table!”

Creative Director of Eurovision – Australia Decides and Director of Blink TV Paul Clarke also adding "To our music community we say - write the perfect Eurovision song! We have every intention of bringing the show back to the Gold Coast in 2022 bigger and better than ever."

SBS is alo currently exploring alternative Eurovision programming for 2020 to help unite and entertain audiences during these challenging times and will provide more information soon.

The EBU announced yesterday that they would be producing a show 'Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light’ to be shown in May.