Why The Vanns should represent Australia at Eurovision 2026
- Saskia McKenna
- Sep 17
- 3 min read
Another season has come and gone, and it is once again time for the team at Aussievision to throw their hat into the ring and put forward their top choice for Australia’s 11th participation.
We’ve already seen three candidates put forward, with Sam kicking things off with Troye Sivan, Cooper suggesting Charley, Troy advocating for Rhonda Burchmore, and last week Liv putting forward Hilltop Hoods.
Australia finds itself in uncharted territory, as we experience our first back-to-back non-qualification since debuting in 2015. It’s clear that a shake-up is in order and I believe that The Vanns could deliver just that.
Who are The Vanns?
The Vanns are a rock band hailing from beautiful Kiama in south NSW. They formed in 2012 and their current line-up is Jimmy Vann (lead vocals, guitar), Cameron Little (guitar, keyboard, backing vocals), Tom Switlek (bass) and Andrew Banovich (drums).
Their debut album Through the Walls was released in 2019 and features their most popular song Fake Friends.
They saw even more success with their sophomore album Last of Your Kind (2023) which landed at number 8 on the ARIA charts.
Last month, they released their third album All That’s in My Head alongside the announcement of an Australian tour. It’s clear that they are a band in their prime.
They’re also a mainstay on the festival and concert circuits. I have seen them three times, once at Lost Paradise and twice as the opening act to touring artists The Wombats and Inhaler.
A Local Sound
The sound of The Vanns is authentic. They share the surf rock sensibilities of many other current popular Aussie acts such as The Rions, Pacific Avenue and Old Mervs mixed with the heavier alt-rock guitars of Eskimo Joe.
I think that both Go-Jo and Electric Fields’ efforts came off as over-produced. What we need is a true homegrown, genuine sound.
Whilst many of their songs run on the longer side, they have shown they can write punchy songs with dynamic changes in short runtimes. My favourite example of this is the track True Friends off their 2023 album Last of Your Kind.
Australia's Identity Crisis
Many fans feel Australia has been struggling recently to qualify in Eurovision due to televote only semi-finals. But many seem to conveniently forget the recent success of Voyager only two years ago!
Let’s not forget that we won our semi-final in a very strong year with a prog-rock song, and although this televote success was not replicated in the final, many entries televotes were affected by the Loreen vs. Kaarija event.
Voyager proved that televote success is possible for Australia. It is also true that we have no neighborly voters and are therefore at a disadvantage. This means that we must hold ourselves to a higher standard to do well. Whilst it isn’t fair, it is doable.
It’s obvious that the novelty of Australia has worn off on Europe, part of how we can re-invigorate the public’s imagination is by carving out our own identity in the contest.
Similar to powerhouses like Sweden, Portugal, and Italy, cultivating a distinctive cultural flavour is entirely possible with the thriving music scene we have here in Australia.
Portugal is the prime example, and the lasting chart success of NAPA took everyone by surprise. This combined with the high scores of Lucio Corsi and Ziferblat proved that indie-rock and bands have a massive audience in Eurovision.
A Land of Rock and Roll
When people think of Australian music, they think of classic rock bands AC/DC, INXS, Cold Chisel, ICEHOUSE and The Church. Sending something so distinctly Australian could be a recipe for success.
And I get it, surf rock is a genre that doesn’t have the best reputation at Eurovision… we all remember Do It For Your Lover.
But I believe that it absolutely has a place on the Eurovision stage, and if any country can properly establish surf rock as a genre in the contest it’s Australia.
The Vanns have got a very familiar sound on the Australian scene, but to Europe it would be a novel and exciting switch-up, and there wouldn't be any direct competition from other countries. It's time we carve out our own niche.
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