Can Australia ever win Eurovision? Yes, but do we really need to?

May 17, 2026 — 2:34pm

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Soaring into the sky in a shower of fire and golden sunlight, Australian singer-songwriter Delta Goodrem delivered a career-defining performance that became the talk of Eurovision. To be fair, it was a tough field, but even competition-hardened Eurovision expert Graham Norton tipped it as this year’s competition-winning performance.

In the end, however, Goodrem walked away in fourth place, after Eurovision’s hectic TV audience-voting phase upended the scoreboard, burying favourites France, Italy and Greece, elevating Israel and Romania to second and third place, and catapulting Bulgaria into an unassailable lead that nobody, not even sun goddess Delta Goodrem, could match.

That is the nature of Eurovision. It’s as crazy and colourful on the scoreboard as it is on the stage. In 2015, Dami Im faced a similar battle. She delivered a stunning performance but the competition ended in a brutal twist that pushed her to second place. In 2019, Kate Miller-Heidke’s staging was equally breathtaking – she literally took flight – but she too was pushed into ninth place, after an unfairly harsh jury vote.

As the Australian delegation packs its bags tonight in Vienna preparing to head home, the mood is upbeat. Goodrem herself is thrilled with the outcome. And in truth, fourth place in a field of 35, is a noble outcome. But it does leave us with a lingering question. Just what do we have to do to win the Eurovision Song Contest?

The answer is not as simple as send an extraordinary singer and equip her with an extraordinary song. The Eurovision Song Contest is a Rubik’s Cube of diplomacy,........

© The Sydney Morning Herald