That’s it! Australia has decided who it wants to represent the Antipodeans at the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin in May. And that representative is:
SHELDON RILEY
SBS Australia’s Eurovision – Australia Decides has unearthed the country’s third national final winner (after the cancelled 2020 show in Rotterdam where SBS decided to resend 2020 winner Montaigne) and Sheldon was clearly emotional during his winner’s performance – unable to sing some of the lyrics due to being so overwhelmed!
A total of 11 finalists took to the stage inside the intimate Gold Coast Exhibition and Convention Centre, each diverse in style and presentation. The winner was decided by a mix of jury and public votes compiled by SMS. The jury was made up of Darren Hayes (singer/songwriter and former member of Savage Garden), Alexandra Rotan (band member of Norwegian supergroup KEiiNO, Millie Petriella (APRA-AMCOS), Emily Griggs (SBS Head of Food and Entertainment and Creative Director) and Paul Clarke (BlinkTV producer). These were collated at a non-televised performance the previous night.
The eleven acts for 2022, all vying for the stage were: six-piece girl group G-NAT!ON with Bite Me, TikTok Wildcard Erica Padilla with To The Bottom, the fabulous Seann Miley Moore with My Body, pop newcomer Charley with I Suck At Being Lonely, charismatic pop star Andrew Lambrou with Electrify, avant-garde performance artist Sheldon Riley with Not The Same, powerhouse entertainer PAULINI with We Are One, multi-media artist Jaguar Jonze with Little Fires, dynamic duo Isaiah Firebrace and Evie Irie with When I’m With You, Perth’s metal quintet Voyager with Dreamer, and of course, finishing off the night singer-songwriter Jude York with I Won’t Need to Dream.
The Jury Vote provided the first bit of drama of the night, choosing Jaguar Jonze as the best entry, with Sheldon Riley second and Voyager rounding out the top 3.
Once the televotes were revealed the distribution of votes were as follows –
1 G-Nat!on – Bite Me (56 points)
2 Erica Padilla – By The Way (45 points)
3 Seann Miley Moore – My Body (23 points)
4 Charley – I Suck At Being Lonely (63 points)
5 Andrew Lambrou – Electrify (51 points)
6 Paulini – We Are One (52 points)
7 Sheldon Riley – Not The Same (100 points)
8 Jaguar Jonze – Little Fires (91 points)
9 Isaiah Firebrace & Evie Irie – When I’m With You (45 points)
10 Voyager – Dreamer (97 points)
11 Jude York – I Won’t Need To Dream (47 points)
Sheldon Riley will thus represent the Australia at the Eurovision Song Contest at Turin in May. Congratulations!
If you missed the live show, you can catch up on SBS On Demand, and be sure to check out our interview with the winner before the competition here.
The ESCBubble readers and jury members also overwhelmingly chose Sheldon as their favourite. For a run down of how the vote panned out check our video here.
In addition to the fight for the Australia Decides title, we were once again treated to a performance by last year’s entrant Montaigne singing both “Technicolour” and her collaboration with Talking Heads legend David Byrne “Always Be You”. Norwegian 2019 entrants KEiiNO also performed their hit “Spirit in the Sky” and a cover of Kylie Minogue’s smash hit “On a Night Like This” in their truly unique take – Fred jolking in his native Saami and a First Nations elder playing the Mandapul, or Didgeridoo as it’s also known.
What do you think of the show? Do you agree with the result? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below!
