Delta Goodrem will take to the stage in Vienna in a few hours, carrying the hopes of a nation on her shoulders as she vies to become the first Australian to win the Eurovision Song Contest.
The 12-time ARIA Award-winning artist will dazzle in a gold and silver, crystal-bejewelled gown before a global audience of 160 million people – including a legion of Australian fans who have flown in for the world’s biggest music event.
Delta is a solid top-five chance and Australia’s best hope yet of bringing the Eurovision crown Down Under. Speaking to fans at Eurofan House in Vienna ahead of her Thursday night semi-final performance (Friday morning AEST), Delta said she was grateful for the guiding forces that brought her to Eurovision to “represent my beautiful country and fly the flag”.
“I’ve come into this with no expectations of anything but just stepping into this with so much love and respect for Eurovision – the icon itself,” Delta told host William Lee Adams, of Eurovision YouTube channel Wiwibloggs.
“I walk in feeling very grateful to be part of the class of 2026… whatever happens, it’s already been very magical.”
Indeed, there are higher powers at play. Delta’s powerhouse Eurovision song, ‘Eclipse’, was announced the week of a lunar eclipse, and the singer-songwriter revealed she was born during an eclipse. When she steps out in a handmade gown studded with more than 7000 Swarovski crystals, and staging heavy on celestial symbolism, Delta will be hoping her stars align.
Thirty-five countries are competing in the 70th annual Eurovision Song Contest. Seven were knocked out in the first semi-final, and only 10 will advance from the second. Delta is almost guaranteed to be one of them. Unofficial polling has the Aussie hopeful finishing as high as the top three. The performance of her career comes just days after Delta announced the release of her eighth studio album, Pure, in November.
The anticipation is building for Australian fans in Vienna who may be on the brink of seeing history made.
Sunshine Coast fan Joel Grace has been watching Eurovision from his lounge room for 25 years and is in the audience for the first time, after missing out on much-coveted tickets in previous years.
“I never would have thought that when I first started listening to Delta back in the day that she would end up representing Australia, because when I first started listening to Delta, of course, Australia weren’t even in Eurovision,” Grace said.
“I think that Delta has brought a fantastic song, and it’s one of our most competitive entries ever. And I think that we’re definitely in with a very good chance of taking out the whole thing.”
On the eve of Goodrem’s semi-final performance, members of the Eurovision Song Contest Fans of Australia Network (ESCFAN) gathered in the basement at Crossfields Australian Pub in Vienna. Sitting amongst Australian flags, bottles of VB and neon kangaroos, they came to share in the Eurovision revelry and also raise money for the Delta Goodrem Foundation.
“Australians connect with Eurovision because it reflects a broader idea of people connecting with each other,” ESCFAN president Lachlan Woods said. Social media and ancestral ties to Europe fuelled interest in the contest, and “the quirky performances, outfits and outrageous staging also help”.
But can Delta win, eclipsing the rest of the competition?
“Having seen parts of Delta’s performance and seeing her perform live in Vienna, I am quietly optimistic that Delta will do very well this year,” Woods said.
Melbourne fan Katrina Whelen came to Vienna with her 19-year-old daughter Penny after scoring tickets she described as more hotly contested than a Taylor Swift concert. The pair has bought “Austrian-approved safety-standard” Australian flags for the show and is “100 per cent locked in” behind Delta.
“I think it’s an incredible song. I think it’s got all the ingredients for absolutely winning Eurovision,” Whelen says of ‘Eclipse’.
“People go, well, Australia’s never going to win. And I kind of think, well, if we wanted a nonpolitical vote, it could be Australia’s year.”
The contest – famous for its dancing grannies, drag queens and performers in underpants – is decided by vote, split equally between expert juries from each competing country and a public televote. Fans cannot vote for their own country, which leaves Australia at a disadvantage as countries typically vote in blocks, favouring their European peers.
There’s also that minor detail of Australia being more than 14,000 kilometres from Europe. (Israel, controversially, is the only other non-European competitor.)
Australia qualifies by virtue of SBS being an associate member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) – the coordinator of Eurovision – and has competed every year since Guy Sebastian made the nation’s debut in 2015. A year later, Dami Im came second in Australia’s best Eurovision result.
But Delta could go all the way.
Hoping for an Aussie win is 20-year-old Max Lintern, who’s been hooked on the contest since his parents, Karen and Scott, hosted Eurovision get-togethers with friends in costumes a decade ago. He’s taking time out from university in Adelaide to attend his third Eurovision, together with his mum and dad.
Max queued for eight hours to be at the front of the stage for the first semi-final, and will do the same for Delta.
“Delta’s been at the top of everyone’s wish list since we first came in [to the competition], Max said.
“It’s something that we’ve wanted for a while. I think the song, I mean, it’s very highly polished, high quality – what you’d expect from Delta. And, in terms of our chances, I think it’s a very, very heated competition this year… but I think we have a very strong chance of taking that out.”
The Grand Final takes place on Saturday night (from 5 am AEST).
The Eurovision Song Contest airs from May 13 to 17 on SBS and SBS On Demand.
