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Australia misses Eurovision glory

Results of Semi Final 1 mean Montaigne is out of the grand final in Rotterdam.

Australia has failed to qualify for the Eurovision Song Contest grand final.

The first Semi Final was held earlier today (5am AEST) at Rotterdam Ahoy arena but Montaigne was not one of 10 countries to qualify.

Sadly it marks the first time Australia has missed the Grand Final, taking place Sunday morning Australian time, since we have officially competed (2015).

Montaigne, who did not attend in Rotterdam, performed via Live on Tape from Sydney due to travel restrictions, and watched Live this morning with the Australian delegation.

Qualifying countries are in bold:

  1. 🇱🇹 Lithuania / The Roop – Discoteque
  2. 🇸🇮 Slovenia / Ana Soklič – Amen
  3. 🇷🇺 Russia / Manizha – Russian Woman
  4. 🇸🇪 Sweden / Tusse – Voices
  5. 🇦🇺 Australia / Montaigne – Technicolour (Live-on-Tape performance)
  6. 🇲🇰 North Macedonia / Vasil – Here I Stand
  7. 🇮🇪 Ireland / Lesley Roy – Maps
  8. 🇨🇾 Cyprus / Elena Tsagrinou – El Diablo
  9. 🇳🇴 Norway / TIX – Fallen Angel
  10. 🇭🇷 Croatia / Albina – Tick-Tock
  11. 🇧🇪 Belgium / Hooverphonic – The Wrong Place
  12. 🇮🇱 Israel / Eden Alene – Set Me Free
  13. 🇷🇴 Romania / ROXEN – Amnesia
  14. 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan / Efendi – Mata Hari
  15. 🇺🇦 Ukraine / Go_A – Shum
  16. 🇲🇹 Malta / Destiny – Je Me Casse

SBS replays Friday 21 May at 8.30pm.

This post updates.

25 Responses

  1. I don’t really understand why we didn’t send Montaigne to the Netherlands. We sent cricketers to India and it seems to me Netherlands would probably be far safer. Were giving vaccinations to Olympians to compete in Tokyo surely a similar arrangement could have been organised for the Eurovision team.

  2. Certainly the worst Aussie effort so far and like many of the returning acts they suffered from the song not being as strong as their original effort. The staging though was well done – if it hadn’t been mentioned you wouldn’t know she wasn’t live in the arena.

    Overall though a weak semi-final – only 4 or 5 were really worthy of going through.

  3. So much hate in these comments. Montaigne has been gallant in difficult circumstances. It’s music – not everyone is going to like everything and Eurovision is all about pushing the boundaries.

    Congratulations Montaigne on a job well done and for your classy responses this morning.

    1. Unfortunately, but by the same token Eurovision does ask viewers to vote on how much they like a song / performance. She did her best and it was much better than Mardi Gras event. We won’t qualify every year, but circumstances against 2021.

      1. I guess what I mean is that a generic people pleasing song doesn’t *always* grab votes – sometimes it’s the songs people either love or hate that get the cut through with televoting. Often the winning Eurovision contestants (think Loreen, Conchita, Netta, Salvador Sobral) are unique artists who perform something authentic to them.

        We had an uphill battle with the live-on-tape, and this was probably the second most competitive semi final ever (2018 Semi 1 was probably tougher) – if we were in Semi 2 we may have had a chance for slots 8-10. As you said, we can’t qualify every year – and part of me is looking forward to watching the final without worrying about how we will fare!

  4. The remote performance may well have been a negative but the plain fact is that this song was a very poor choice as a Eurovision entry. Nothing against Montaigne, she seems remarkable … the song was not.

  5. Oh, that’s disappointing. I liked the song, but agree maybe last year’s was better overall. I thought it held up well enough but am not entirely surprised it didn’t go through. In other news, go Norway! Also loved Ukraine.

  6. It’s disappointing but not surprising unfortunately. We had so much against us this year and honestly her song from last year was so much better than this one. We put up a fight and she gave it her best though and thats all we can ask for. Hopefully we can bounce back next year. Croatia was robbed though. Malta is my favourite alongside Sweden currently. I don’t understand why Italy is favourite though.

  7. Montaigne is an ace artist but unfortunately there was just too much going against her to have a real chance… starting with the truly bland, awful song.

  8. The production of Australia’s production this year is our weakest effort yet. I am sure our lack of effort to make the trip to Rotterdam would have gone against us too. Let’s hope we are invited back next year & we go all out.

  9. Very disappointing result. 😢 My heart breaks 💔 for Montaigne not being there but better safe then sorry.
    No need to watch any more Eurovision.

  10. Alas I feel even if she was in Rotterdam the song was too divisive to make it through in addition to the running order. But at least we get to experience that feeling now when the country does not qualify. In saying all of that nearly all my faves got through, especially Ukraine and Russia 🙂

  11. No surprise, it’s a rumour going around that a number of countries and judges despise Australia being allowed to compete in their event

    1. Mike the judges have voted Australia well every other time. Public vote will always be a challenge without neighbouring countries. We’ve been top 10 every other year except one, so SBS / Blink have a fine track record.

      1. Totally agree, David. The professional juries have shown Australia a lot of love since we joined the contest. To Mike’s point though, our more recent results in the public vote do seem to suggest that the novelty of Australia being there has worn off. That said, neighbourly voting helps too, but the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Israel and Austria have all won in the last decade or so and aren’t part of any blocs – so, it’s not everything.

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