Australia

Selection
 Appearances
 Debut

**Australia** debuted in the 1st edition of the Altervision Song Contest held in Prague, Czech Republic.

Australia has been ever present at the contest, being one of three countries to have taken part at every edition, along with Spain and the United Kingdom. However, only they have had the same Head of Delegation since the beginning: Luna.

## History of Australia in the Altervision Song Contest

### First decade

Australia was one of the first countries to confirm participation at the 1st edition. ABC took the duties of preparing Australia's entry. They chose to go internal and on 7 April, they announced that Electric Fields would represent Australia with the song "2000 and Whatever". In Prague, the song finished in 11th place with 117 points. Their entry for the 2nd edition was also internally selected: "On My Way" by Sheppard. They received 21 points from the juries, giving Australia a disappointing 18th place.

For the 3rd edition, Australia's host broadcaster was changed from ABC to SBS. ABC still broadcast the contest until the 6th edition. Electric Fields returned to represent Australia in this edition after they were internally selected alongside Norwegian supergroup KEiiNO. They sang the song "Would I Lie", which finished in 7th with 138 points, scoring their highest placement of the time. "Devil You Don't" by CXLOE was the Australian entry at the 4th edition, which managed to win the contest with 209 points—a then record amount, and bring the contest to Australia.

To celebrate their hosting, SBS revealed that they would establish a national selection: Altervision: Australia Decides. The winner of the 1st edition was "Gladiator", performed by Dami Im. At the 5th edition in the Gold Coast, the song finished 5th in the contest with 143 points. The next edition had a semi-final, which Australia did not have to participate in because they were a member of the Big 8. Australia Decides was used once again, and the victor of the 2nd edition was "Ur So F\*\*king Cool" performed by Tones and I. However, unlike in the previous editions, they were less successful, finishing in 17th place with 108 points, meaning that they had to go through the semi-final at the 7th edition for the first time. Australia Decides' 3rd edition was held, with "The Way That You Love Me" by Vera Blue emerging victorious. The song took part in the semi-final and managed to win it with 243 points, scoring its qualification along with twelve other entries. However, it was less successful in the final, finishing in 7th place with 206 points.

Australia Decides was once again used for the 8th edition, with the 4th edition of the event taking place. Tones and I won the national final with the song "Johnny Run Away", becoming the first artist to win it twice. However, in Tokyo, the song finished in 11th place with 119 points, which made Australia fail to qualify for the first time ever. For the 9th edition, the 5th edition took place, where Celina Sharma and Emiwai Bantai took home victory with "Lean On". Unfortunately, the song failed to qualify once again, narrowly missing with an 8th place with 135 points. SBS decided to return to internal selection for the 10th edition. Returning artist Vera Blue was chosen as the Australian representative alongside Kody Shane, with their song "Lady Powers". It qualified to the final for the first time since the 7th edition, finishing in 8th, due to a change in semi-final size, with 150 points. In the final, it finished in 24th, at the time Australia's worst final performance.

### Second decade

SBS continued this system for the 11th edition, selecting "More Than a Friend" by GIRLI. It narrowly qualified in 10th place with 142 points, giving Australia their second consecutive appearance in the final. In the final, it finished in 17th with 158 points. Internal selection was once again used for the 12th edition, where Australia was represented by Regard, Troye Sivan (who had twice taken part in Australia Decides, losing both times to Tones and I) and Tate McRae with the song "You", which was considered to be a likely winner of the contest. However, at the contest, it faltered. In the semi-final, the song finished in 8th place with 140 points and qualified for the final. In the final, Australia finished in 26th (last) in the final with 74 points, the country's worst ever final performance and first last place and their second least amount of points in either the final or the semi-final after the 2nd edition (21 points), which had only a final and did not have a televote. The entrant for the 13th edition was selected internally once again, and this time around, Australia's choice was LEX with "C'est La Vie", which was also the third song from Australia to contain lyrics in languages besides English. The song was predicted to place well in the the contest, and did not disappoint. LEX qualified from first place in her respective semi, and ultimately finished as the runner-up in the final, giving Australia it's first podium placing after their victory in the 4th edition, while C'est La Vie became Australia's highest-scoring entry in the contest.

## Hostings

1. ↑ Contains 2 lines in Serbian and one line in French repeating thoughout the song

 First decade
 Active
 Host cities