Australia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

Australia
Member station	SBS
National selection events	Internal selection
Participation summary
Appearances	2
First appearance	2015
Best result	5th: 2016
Worst result	8th: 2015
External links
	SBS page
	Australia’s page at Eurovision.tv
	For the most recent participation see; Australia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016

The participation of Australia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contestfirst began in Sofia, Bulgaria, at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015. Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) an associate member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have been responsible for the selection process of their participants, since their debut in 2015. The first representative to participate for the nation at the 2015 contest was Bella Paige with the song “My Girls”, which finished in eighth place out of seventeen participating entries, achieving a score of sixty-four points. Australia continued their participation at the 2016 contest, having internally selected Alexa Curtis with her song “We Are”, which finished in fifth place, scoring 202 points; their best result to date. SBS previously broadcast every edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest on a broadcast delay. As of Junior Eurovision 2016, Australia have awarded the most points to Malta, and received the most points from Georgia.

History[edit]

On 7 October 2015, the Australiannational broadcaster Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) announced that they would be making their Junior Eurovision debut at the 2015 contest, in Sofia, Bulgaria,^[1]^[2] following on from their success at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015.^[3] SBS internally selected Bella Paige as their debut representative, with the song “My Girls“.^[4]At the running order draw which took place on 15 November 2015, Australia were drawn to perform sixth on 21 November 2015, following Netherlands and preceding Ireland,^[5] were she finished in eighth place scoring 64 points.^[6] This was Australia’s worst result in their contest history.^[6]

Alexa Curtis performing at Junior Eurovision 2016.

Australian broadcaster SBS, announced on 12 September 2016 that they would be continuing their participation at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, and would once again internally select their entrant for the 2016 Contest, which took place on 20 November 2016, in Valletta, Malta.^[7]Alexa Curtis was announced on 29 September 2016 as being their participant, and would represent Australia with the song “We Are“.^[8] During the opening ceremony and the running order draw which took place on 14 November 2016, Australia was drawn to perform fourteenth on 20 November 2016, following Israel and preceding the Netherlands,^[9] were she finished in fifth place achieving 202 points, their best result to date.^[10]

Participation[edit]

Table key

1st place 2nd place 3rd place Last place

Year	Artist	Song	Language	Place	Points
2015	Bella Paige	“My Girls“	English	8	64
2016	Alexa Curtis	“We Are“	English	5	202

Broadcasts and voting[edit]

Commentators and spokespersons[edit]

The contests are broadcast online worldwide through the official Junior Eurovision Song Contest website junioreurovision.tv and YouTube. In 2015, the online broadcasts featured commentary in English by junioreurovision.tv editor Luke Fisher and 2011 Bulgarian Junior Eurovision Song Contest entrant Ivan Ivanov.^[11] The Australian broadcaster, SBS, send their own commentary team to each contest in order to provide commentary in the English language. Spokespersons were also chosen by the national broadcaster in order to announce the awarding points from Australia. The table below list the details of each commentator and spokesperson since 2003.

Year(s)	Commentator	Spokesperson
2003	No commentator	Australia not allowed to compete
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013	Andre Nookadu and Georgia McCarthy
2014	Andre Nookadu and Georgia McCarthy
2015	Ash London and Toby Truslove^[12]	Ellie Blackwell
2016	No commentator	Sebastian Hill

Voting history[edit]

The tables below shows Australia’s top-five voting history rankings up until their most recent participation in 2016 and takes into account the new voting system which allows the adult and kids juries each to award a set of points, introduced by the European Broadcasting Union from the 2016 contest onwards.^[13]