Australia made its debut at the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2015 and has competed every year since. Each year Australian televoters and/or juries have also awarded points to every Eurovision runners-up in the Grand Final.
We have ranked the points awarded by the Australian televote and jury to every Eurovision runners-up in the Grand Final, from the lowest to the highest total score, to determine Australia's favourite Eurovision runners-up between 2015 and 2023.
In 2016, Australia's got a taste of being on the podium with 'Sound of Silence' by Dami Im winning the Jury vote and finishing overall in the runners-up spot, a first for Australia. Dami's success is Australia's best result at the Contest so far.
Check out Australia's televote and jury favourite Eurovision runners-up in the list below, including details of how Australia voted for the ultimate winners in their semi-finals.
7. Mahmood - 'Soldi' (Italy, 2019)
5 points (5 points - Televote / 0 points - Jury)
In 2019, Italy missed out on jury points from Australia. Mahmood was in the top 10 with two Aussie jurors but that wasn't enough, finishing in 16th place with the Australian jury. The Australian public however had 'Soldi' as one of their top 10 favourites giving Italy five points.
Surprisingly 'Soldi' is the lowest ranked Eurovision runner-up from Australia with only a total five points.
=5. Sam Ryder - 'Space Man' (United Kingdom, 2022)
7 points (7 points - Online vote / 0 points - Jury)
Eurovision 2022 saw the Australian jury give zero points to a Eurovision runner-up for the third time. Only two Australian jurors had 'Space Man' in their top 10, with the song finishing 15th with the Aussie jury.
Sam Ryder ended up winning the overall jury vote with 'Space Man'. The Aussie jury gave their 12 points to Chanel from Spain for her energetic performance of 'SloMo'.
Sam faired better with the Aussie public receiving seven points. 'Stefania' by Kalush Orchestra took the Aussie public 12 points that year.
=5. Eleni Foureira - 'Fuego' (Cyprus, 2018)
7 points (7 points - Televote / 0 points - Jury)
The Australian jury were one of 14 juries to not awarded Eleni with points making it the first time where either an Aussie jury or televote gave nil points to a Eurovision runner-up. 'Fuego' just missed out getting points from the Aussie jury despite finishing in the top 10 with four out of five of the jurors it finished in 11th place.
In the televote Eleni managed to secure points from every country, with seven points from the Australian public. Australia's 12 points went to the eventual winner 'Toy' by Netta.
4. Barbara Pravi - 'Voilà' (France, 2021)
11 points (4 points - Televote / 7 points - Jury)
'Voilà' by Barbara Pravi proved more popular with the Australian jury than with the Aussie televote, but both collectively gave France points from Australia. The Australian jury gave Barbara seven points, with their douze points going to Malta and the televote gave four points, with the Aussie home viewers giving their douze points to Iceland.
3. Kristian Kostov - 'Beautiful Mess' (Bulgaria, 2017)
13 points (5 points - Televote / 8 points - Jury)
In 2017, both the Australia televote and jury had Bulgaria's Kristian Kostov in their top 6 with an overall score of 13 points. However, 'Beautiful Mess' is not the highest rewarded Bulgarian Eurovision song. That title belongs to Bulgaria's 2016 entry 'If Love Was a Crime' by Poli Genova which received a combined score of 18 points from the Australian public and jury.
In Kyiv the Australian televote douze points went to Moldova's Sunstroke Project and the Australian jury 12 points went to the UK's Lucie Jones.
2. Polina Gagarina - 'A Million Voices' (Russia, 2015)
16 points (Televote rank 7th place (4 points) / Jury rank 1st place (12 points))
Eurovision 2015 was the only year the Australian jury gave 12 points to an entry that ended up being the Eurovision runner-up.
1. Käärijä - 'Cha Cha Cha' (Finland, 2023)
17 points (12 points - Online vote / 5 points - Jury)
'Cha Cha Cha' proved to be very popular with the televoting public with Australians joining 17 other countries to give Käärijä the ultimate douze points.
2023 was the first year the Australian public gave 12 points to the overall televote winner. It is also only the fourth time the Australian jury gave points to a Grand Final runner-up entry. The Aussie jury gave their 12 points to 'Because of You' by Gustaph from Belgium.
With 17 points overall 'Cha Cha Cha' is Australia's most rewarded runners-up Eurovision entry ever.
Well, there you have it! What do you think? Does Australia have taste when it comes to backing Eurovision runners-up?
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Good day! Very interesting.