Aside from how Australia ended up in the Eurovision Song Contest in the first place, our attempts to actually win it have constantly floundered as our slightly drab, slightly too serious contestants haven’t been able to compete with the competition’s more flamboyant, Eurotrash entrants.
Australia first entered the famously loud and famously garish singing comp back in 2015, with Dami Im our best-placed contestant, coming an admirable second in 2016.
Now our 2023 entry has been named – Perth-based synth-metal quintet Voyager will be flying the flag at this year’s competition to be held in May in Liverpool in the UK.
The band comprises lead vocalist Danny Estrin, guitarists Simone Dow and Scott Kay, drummer Ash Doodkorte and bass guitarist Alex Canion
The band have even dropped the track they’ll be performing – a rocky, punky, synth anthem called “Promise”. Dance along to it below:
And it’s been a long time coming for the boys from Perth who admit they’ve entered in the competition to represent Australia for the past eight years, however never got the nod. Last year they were narrowly beaten by eventual winner Sheldon Riley who ultimately placed 15th out of the 40 competing nations.
The band’s lead singer, Danny Estrin, said of representing his country: “I can’t wait to see Eurovision fans the world over embrace [Voyager] as much as Aussie crowds have. Look out, Europe, the Aussies are coming!”
On the video for “Promise”, Estrin said: “We filmed the music video in both the city of Perth and beautiful parts of Western Australia to showcase the majestic beauty of our home state. Eurovisionation, we are coming!!!”
Creative director, Paul Clark, who works on Australia Decides that whittles down our eventual representative said of Voyager’s win: “Sometimes Eurovision is silly in a serious way, and sometimes people go, wow, that’s incredible, we’ve never seen that. And I think a lot of Eurovision success is about, wow, we’ve never seen that.”
“[Voyager’s] new song Promise has just got these wonderful story points that are just perfect for staging,” Clarke added, describing the band as one part Monty Python and another Kraftwerk. “They’re extraordinary musicians. There’s really clever jazz and metal elements fusing their songs together.”
