Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020
Australia was set to be represented at the Eurovision [Song Contest 2020] with the song "Don't Break Me", written by Jessica Cerro, Anthony Egizii, and David Musumeci, and performed by Montaigne. The Australian participating broadcaster, Special Broadcasting Service, organised the national final Australia Decides|Eurovision – Australia Decides] in order to select its entry for the contest. Ten artists and songs competed in the national final and the winner was selected by a public and jury vote.
Australia debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015 by invitation from the European Broadcasting Union as a "one-off" special guest to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Eurovision. On 17 November 2015, the EBU announced that SBS had been invited to participate in the 2016 contest and that Australia would once again take part. In 2015, Australia was guaranteed a spot in the final of the contest and was allowed to vote during both semi-finals and the final; however, from the 2016 contest and onwards, Australia would have to qualify to the final from one of two semi-finals and could only vote in the semi-final in which the nation was allocated to compete.
Australia was originally drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, which would have taken place on 12 May 2020. However, the contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Background
has broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest since 1983, and the contest has gained a cult following over that time, primarily due to the country's strong political and cultural ties with Europe. Paying tribute to this, the 2014 contest semi-finals included an interval act featuring Australian singer Jessica Mauboy. Australian singers have also participated at Eurovision as representatives of other countries, including Olivia Newton-John, two-time winner Johnny Logan, Gina G, and Jane Comerford as lead singer of Texas Lightning.Tying in with the goal of Eurovision—to showcase "the importance of bringing countries together to celebrate diversity, music and culture", the 2015 theme of "Building Bridges", and arguing that they could not hold "the world's biggest party" to celebrate the 60th edition of Eurovision without inviting Australia, the EBU announced on 10 February 2015 that the country would compete at that year's edition as a special guest participant. Along with the "Big Five", and the host country of Austria, Australia was given automatic entry into the final to "not reduce the chances" of the semi-final participants. On 17 November 2015, the EBU announced that SBS had been invited to participate in the 2016 contest and that Australia would once again take part, however they would have to qualify for the final from one of two semi-finals and could only vote in the semi-final in which the nation was competing. On 29 May 2019, SBS confirmed Australia's participation in the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest after securing an invitation for the sixth year in a row. In 2019, Australia was represented by Kate Miller-Heidke and the song "Zero Gravity". The country ended in ninth place in the grand final with 284 points. On 29 August 2019, SBS announced that they would once hold a national final to select the Australian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020.
Before Eurovision
''Eurovision – Australia Decides''
Eurovision – Australia Decides was the national final in order to select the Australian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The competition took place at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Gold Coast on 8 February 2020, hosted by Myf Warhurst and Joel Creasey. Ten artists and songs competed with the winner being determined by a combination of public and jury voting. The show was broadcast on SBS as well as streamed online at SBS On Demand. The national final was watched by 334,000 viewers in Australia.Competing entries
On 29 August 2019, SBS announced an open submission for interested songwriters to submit their songs online until 30 September 2019. Songwriters were required to be citizens or permanent residents of Australia and songs were required to be in English or an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language. Minor collaborations with foreign songwriters were permitted as long as the majority of the composers/songwriters were Australian citizens or permanent residents. Ten songs were selected for the competition from the received submissions and performers of the selected songs were determined by SBS in consultation with the songwriters. The ten competing acts were announced in three sets between 8 November and 16 December 2019.Final
The final took place on 8 February 2020. The combination of public votes and a five-member jury selected "Don't Break Me" performed by Montaigne as the winner. The jury consisted of Josh Martin, Kate Miller-Heidke, Måns Zelmerlöw, Milly Petriella and Paul Clarke who each distributed points from 1–8, 10 and 12 during the preview show on 7 February 2020 and had a total of 290 points to award. Viewers were able to vote via SMS and the total votes were divided by 290 to determine the quota that would equal to a single point. The number of votes each song gained was then divided by the quota and rounded up to the nearest integer to determine the points an entry would be awarded. In addition to the performances of the ten competing entries, Dami Im, who represented,, Kate Miller-Heidke and Måns Zelmerlöw performed as the interval acts.| Draw | Artist | Song | Songwriter | Jury | Televote | Total | Place |
| 1 | Iota | "Life" | Jesse Watt | 19 | 13 | 32 | 9 |
| 2 | Jordan-Ravi | "Pushing Stars" | Mattias Lindblom, Tania Doko, George Sheppard, Martin Eriksson | 11 | 12 | 23 | 10 |
| 3 | Jaguar Jonze | "Rabbit Hole" | Deena Lynch, Aidan Hogg | 18 | 28 | 46 | 6 |
| 4 | Jack Vidgen | "I Am King I Am Queen" | Jack Vidgen, Andrew Lowden | 19 | 15 | 34 | 8 |
| 5 | Vanessa Amorosi | "Lessons of Love" | Vanessa Amorosi, Aleena Gibson, Trevor Muzzy | 42 | 40 | 82 | 3 |
| 6 | Diana Rouvas | "Can We Make Heaven" | Diana Rouvas, Louis Schoorl | 24 | 18 | 42 | 7 |
| 7 | Mitch Tambo | "Together" | Roberto De Sa, Isabella Kearney-Nurse, Andy Hopkins | 24 | 33 | 57 | 5 |
| 8 | Casey Donovan | "Proud" | Justine Eltakchi | 40 | 60 | 100 | 2 |
| 9 | Montaigne | "Don't Break Me" | Jessica Cerro, Anthony Egizii, David Musumeci | 54 | 53 | 107 | 1 |
| 10 | Didirri | "Raw Stuff" | Didirri Peters, Oscar Dawson | 39 | 24 | 63 | 4 |