Our Aussie Divas: Interrogating Australian Identity through Audience Reactions to Australia’ Eurovision Entrants

Abstract

Since 2014, Australia has been represented on the Eurovision stage, first as an invited guest, then as wild card entrant, and as a contestant. Before 2019, Australia’s entrant has been decided through invitation from the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), the network which broadcasts Eurovision. As such, the selection of Australia’s representatives is closely aligned with the SBS’s mandate to represent Australia’s diversity. This representation in part differs from other on-screen depictions, which a 2016 government body review found to be predominately Anglo-Celtic in nature (Screen Australia 2016). This chapter explores the reaction of Australian audiences to the selection of Australian Eurovision contestants as a means to investigate how ‘Australian-ness’ is perceived by the general public. Content analysis is conducted on audience comments on media reports between 2014 and 2016. This provides insights into the normalised view of how ‘Australian’ is constructed and how indigeneity and Asian-ness is negotiated in contemporary Australian identity.