SBS have announced that multi-talented singer and ARIA Award winner Guy Sebastian will represent Australia at the 60th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna!
The performance will be a celebration of Australian music and culture and marks the first time in Eurovision history that Australia has been invited to compete at the contest as a wild card entry to celebrate 60 years of Eurovision Song Contest.
The Eurovision Song Contest reached an Australian audience of over 3 million in 2014 and an international audience of over 195 million people and SBS and production partner Blink TV agreed that Guy Sebastian was the perfect artist to showcase Australian music on the world’s biggest stage.
What does it means for him to represent his country in the Eurovision Song Contest? “It’s incredibly exciting to be given the opportunity to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest,” says Sebastian. “It is the biggest music event in the world with an amazing history and tradition and I’m truly honoured to be invited to represent Australia in its first time ever in the competition”
More details on Guy’s performance at the Eurovision Song Contest and which song he will perform in Vienna will be released in the coming weeks.
Australian audiences first discovered Guy Sebastian when he was crowned the first winner of Australian Idol in 2003, and he has since gone on to release 8 studio albums with Sony Music Entertainment Australia, with accumulated sales in excess of 4.5 million units.
With 51 platinum and seven gold certifications Guy has become one of Australia’s most successful male artists. In 2013, his single Battle Scars went Platinum in the US, making Guy one of few artists in Australian music history to achieve this. His performance at Eurovision will be an incredible opportunity to introduce Guy to European audiences.
“We are very excited to have secured an opportunity for Australia to be represented at Eurovision,” says SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid. “It has been a four year journey to achieve this ambition and I’m so proud that Guy Sebastian will be representing our country to Eurovision’s world audience”
“As an accomplished artist who has achieved global success, Guy’s vocal talents are unrivalled and he has the experience, maturity and strength of character to represent us in this competition. Australians love to compete, and we wanted to find someone who we can all believe in and get behind, and Guy is the perfect artist to represent Australia and SBS on the world’s stage.”
Australia will participate in the Final of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna on Saturday 23 May 2015. For more information, visit: www.eurovision.tv or www.sbs.com.au for details.
Image: Guy Sebastian – photo by Ben Symons