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“Absolutely gutted”: Why SBS did not send Montaigne to Eurovision

Exclusive: Health & Safety risks were too much, and our distance made travel even more complex, explains SBS.

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EXCLUSIVE: SBS did not send Montaigne to Eurovision because of prevailing concerns around health & safety, some of which were exacerbated by Australia’s sheer distance from Rotterdam.

Two Risk Assessments, both internal and external, questioned the risks involved in sending an Australian delegation to The Netherlands for three weeks.

SBS maintains it looked at the logistics from every angle to get Montaigne to Rotterdam, but in the end a joint decision -by SBS, producers Blink TV and management / record label for Montaigne- agreed there were too many hurdles and inherent risks to proceed. Instead it opted for the ‘Live on Tape’ performance of Technicolour, specially introduced by the European Broadcasting Union to ensure the event could proceed.

“Our goal was always to get to Rotterdam”

SBS Commissioning Editor and Australian Head of Delegation, Josh Martin, tells TV Tonight, “Our goal was always to get to Rotterdam, to be part of Eurovision. So you look at the challenges that need to be overcome. Getting to the other side of the world, in the middle of a pandemic, there are a lot of challenges: health & safety challenges, technological, challenges with traveling, and flights. We’ve all read the headlines with the number of Australians who still can’t return.

“We tried to address each and every one of them with a goal of trying to get there.”

Commentators Joel Creasey and Myf  Warhurst would stay in Australia, while the delegation team -normally around 20 people- was whittled down to 4: Martin, producer Paul Clarke, singer Montaigne and one other person.

“But even then, there is a travel ban out of Australia. It’s hard to get home. What happens if you can’t get a return flight or you’re bumped off your flight and all of a sudden we’re stuck over there?

“Also, because we’re in the first half of Semi Final One, we had to be there on the ground for around 3 weeks as well as 2 weeks hotel quarantine on the way home.”

Australia’s distance from Europe also dealt a difficult card, as opposed to some nations who are able to travel quickly, or even by land, to Rotterdam.

“We’re on the other side of the world and challenges that we face are unique to us”

“Our challenges were being on the other side of the world, 24 hours away with closed borders, with two weeks hotel quarantine, reduced flights coming into Australia, and a very different COVID situation in Australia as opposed to Europe,” he continues. “We’re on the other side of the world and challenges that we face are unique to us.”

Producer Paul Clarke agrees there were too many hurdles to overcome and points to the risks of a longterm, debilitating illness to an artist’s voice.

“If we’d been able to get vaccines earlier, and if there hadn’t been an uptick in Coronavirus earlier this year, it might have been a different scenario,” he admits.

“Everybody came to the unfortunate conclusion that it was just too hard to do it.

“It’s absolutely gutted us, that we can’t go”

“It’s absolutely gutted us, that we can’t go. I mean, you cannot find a happier, more hopeful environment than Eurovision. It really lifts the soul.

“But we were going to be in hotel rooms for 27 days because we had to rehearse first and the risk was high. The insurance risk really did question the veracity of the decision.”

But Clarke is hopeful Australia can uphold its record so far. All previous entrants, with the exception of Jessica Mauboy, have finished in the Top 10.

“After Sweden, we have the highest mark over the last five years. We’ve done better than any other country so we just really want to try and hang on to that, if we can. This year is a challenge, but we’ll just see how we do.”

Live early morning broadcasts
Semi Final 1 – Wednesday 19 May, 5am (AEST) SBS (Featuring Montaigne)
Semi Final 2 – Friday 21 May, 5am (AEST) SBS
Grand Final – Sunday 23 May, 5am (AEST) SBS

NB: TV Tonight will publish results following Live broadcasts.

Primetime repeats
Semi Final 1 – Friday 21 May, 8.30pm (AEST), SBS
Semi Final 2 – Saturday 22 May, 8.30pm (AEST), SBS
Grand Final – Sunday 23 May, 7.30pm (AEST), SBS

12 Responses

  2. It didn’t seem an issue when it looked like a few might tape performances but once it was clear SBS were the outlier it may have been better to respectably withdraw.

  3. I love the ESC, but I haven’t for one moment thought they should be trying to get our act over there with the current state of things. Either it’s back to running the full event or it’s remote all the way.

  4. There are numerous programs currently filmed in Australia with non-Australian cast. If they can do it, why can’t SBS just try a bit harder?

    1. Hi Matilda, SBS has been an associate member of the European Broadcasting Union for years and screening ESC for decades. That’s how the competition works. Israel is also not in Europe.

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