As unlikely a star of the Eurovision Song Contest as we make – Australia is well below the 30-degree north parallel which marks the southern border for competition qualification – few can challenge our success on its stage.
In our first year of competition in 2015, Guy Sebastian's Tonight Again placed fifth in a field of more than 40 countries.
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Isaiah Firebrace picked for Eurovision 2017
SBS has confirmed X Factor winner Isaiah Firebrace is stepping up for Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest in the Ukraine in May.
Last year Dami Im's Sound of Silence finished a stunning second and would have actually won, were it not for a restructure of the scoring system.
Which begs the question, as we go into our third year in official competition: where do we go from there?
In one sense, Im's stunning performance has effectively boxed Australia into a corner: if we don't nudge up to first place and win outright, our performance year-on-year will be seen to have slid backwards in leaderboard terms.
Australia's head of delegation in the six-decade-old iconic European song competition, Paul Clarke, is unfazed by the challenge.
In fact he says he was relieved that Im didn't win last year because it mostly likely kept Australia, which has entered each year using a wild card from the host broadcaster, in the competition to fight another day.
"I think the fact that we didn't win has been somehow very good for us in the Eurovision world," he says. "We're on a year by year probation ... they think, oh, they came so close and they didn't win, I think it encourages them to keep inviting you back again."
![Dami Im celebrates during the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest final in Sweden.](/web/20170507222726im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/y/d/e/l/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvyj13.png/1494115287634.jpg)
Clarke acknowledges that Im's performance was, in proper terms, perfect.
Indeed had the contest not altered its final scoring algorithm to heighten tension near the end of what is admittedly a slow scoring process, Im would have been the easy winner.
![Guy Sebastian (centre) finished in fifth place with the song Tonight Again at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Austria.](/web/20170507222726im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/y/p/v/0/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvyj13.png/1494115287634.jpg)
"We can't do better than Dami, that was a perfect performance by her, we staged it really well and basically all of Europe came with us," he says.
"But we had no idea that song could beat us," he adds, referring to 1944, sung by Ukraine's Jamala. That song scored 534 points, edging out Im's Sound of Silence on 511.
!['Perfect performance': Dami Im sings Sound Of Silence during last year's final.](/web/20170507222726im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/y/p/t/g/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvyj13.png/1494115287634.jpg)
"One thing I said to Dami, 'I am sure Jamala's song will not beat us'; well, I was wrong," Clarke says. "And it was obviously a political vote by Europe and then they all made that decision on the night."
The pressure to deliver in such a circumstance is heavy. Though he skims past the detail for the sake of good manners, Clarke admits that some preliminary conversations with potential Eurovision artists for 2017 stalled because of concern that Im's second-place score was hard to top.
![X Factor winner Isaiah Firebrace will sing Australia's entry at this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev.](/web/20170507222726im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/s/s/w/w/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gvyj13.png/1494115287634.jpg)
"There were a number of artists that, when we asked is this something that you'd be interested in, in being on our shortlist, a couple came back and said no, not this year, as if to say, I don't know how I would follow Dami," Clarke says.
"And the pressure from there is enormous," he adds.
Instead, Australia has taken a different strategy and is focusing on the rare stage presence and prodigious talents of singer Isaiah Firebrace.
"He's a very centred kid, he's really focused, and he has spent a lot of time thinking about how he can get the most out of the song," Clarke says.
The song – and Eurovision is, to some extent, a song competition more than a singer competition – is Don't Come Easy, written by Anthony Egizii, David Musumeci and Michael Angelo for the Sony label.
It is already scoring well with Eurovision fans, being discussed online as among the top 10 songs in competition from a field of 42. (It was to be 43 but a political stoush between Ukraine and neighbouring Russia resulted in Russia's withdrawal.)
"We've gone somewhere very different," Clarke says of the song. "We've gone kind of soulful, it's not a classic Eurovision song, and he's not a classic Eurovision artist, but what we're promoting is Australian songwriting and artistry."
And Firebrace is, for Clake's money, "the best singer in that competition this year".
"When he sings high, I hear Marvin Gaye, and when he sings low, he's got a velvety lower register that sounds like Sarah Vaughan," Clarke adds.
"He's got the ability to cast a spell with his audience, he moves you, he really captures your heart, and that's ultimately why we went for him."
Firebrace, 17, who grew up in the NSW Riverina town of Moama, says he is very aware of Australia's past performance at Eurovision and the pressure that brings.
"But it's not like that stuff is really on my mind," he says. "I just kind of want to focus on myself and do my best.
"This is a new year and I feel like I am just going to focus on what I have to do and not worry about what everyone else wants," he adds. "If I come back to Australia and people say, 'Great job, you did amazing', then I will be very happy."
As for the competition's scale, Firebrace says he is coming to terms with that.
"I know it's actually a big part of European culture and I know it's the biggest singing competition in the whole world," he says.
"I've only watched it since about 2014 when Jessica Mauboy did the guest performance for Australia ... I feel really awesome to be a part of it."
Australia's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest is a peculiar thing any way you look at it.
You don't need a map to know we're not in Europe, though participation is technically dependent on membership in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), of which SBS is an associate member.
And despite an occasional mumble about why we're there – mostly from Australians – Eurovision's competing countries have welcomed us with open arms, delighted at the addition of something new to a six-decade-old competition.
Our presence is also part of a larger strategy to spin off a Eurovision Asia, in which Australia and our neighbouring countries would compete in an annual song competition.
In 2016, SBS signed an exclusive option with Eurovision's controlling body, the EBU, to establish an Asian version of the contest with production partner Blink TV.
Clarke says it is still a work in progress.
"Making Eurovision Asia happen is our biggest long-term goal," Clarke says, noting that the process has been slowed to some extent by the differing musical tastes across Asia and the sometimes deep political gulfs which exist between some countries.
"I have a lot of faith that whenever you present an idea that is of its time, that eventually things will happen," Clarke says.
"And the Eurovision format for Asia is perfect, I'm really convinced of that. We're just exploring the scale of what's possible. The conversation continues."
SBS will broadcast the two Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals live on Wednesday and Friday morning and in primetime on Friday and Saturday night, and the grand final live on Sunday morning and in primetime on Sunday night.