Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) today announced the final three contestants for Australia Decides, with two in particular being big surprises to an already exciting line-up.
Rock icon Ella Hooper, the frontwoman for Killing Heidi who proclaims that “rock and roll is my weapon of choice,” and pop icon Tania Doko, lead singer of Bachelor Girl, are joined by Alfie Arcuri, the winner of The Voice Australia in 2016.
Australian music fans will be familiar with Hooper from ARIA Music Award winning and chart-topping rock band Killing Heidi, who had success with many Top 20 singles since their debut single “Weir” hit the ARIA Singles Chart in October 1999. “Mascara” hit number one the following month, and in 2000 won four ARIA Music Awards for Album of the Year (“Reflector”), Best Group, Breakthrough Artist, and Best Rock Album. Killing Heidi had two more successful albums before breaking up in 2006, and Hooper joined her brother and Killing Heidi bandmate Jesse Hooper in The Verses, before reforming Killing Heidi in 2016.
Also familiar to Australian music fans will be pop vocalist Tania Doko, who as singer for Bachelor Girl had a Top 10 debut single with “Buses and Trains” in 1998. Bachelor Girl released three albums, and Doko moved to Sweden where she pursued a solo career and worked as a vocal coach. Bachelor Girl reformed in 2017 and released a single, “Speak,” on June 18, 2018, 20 years to the day after the release of “Buses and Trains.”
Alfie Arcuri is a 30-year-old trained architect from Camden, New South Wales, who participated in the fifth season of The Voice Australia, joining Delta Goodrem’s team. Arcuri was announced the winner, and he released his debut album “Zenith” in 2016. On his participation at Australia Decides, Arcuri said “I have a responsibility to present a message through my music that people, they are okay who they are” in being a positive representative of Australia’s LGBT community.
Hooper, Doko, and Arcuri join “RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestant and recording artist Courtney Act, 16-year-old Leea Nanos, 18-year-old and The Voice Australia 2018 contestant Aydan Calafiore, Electric Fields, Kate Miller-Heidke, Mark Vincent, and Sheppard.
The five original compositions announced by SBS and released today (only Courtney Act’s “Fight for Love” had been released thus far:
- Mark Vincent – “This is Not the End”
- Aydan Calafiore – “Dust”
- Leea Nanos – “Set Me Free”
- Alfie Arcuri – “To Myself”
- Electric Fields – “2000 and Whatever”
Eurovision – Australia decides will be broadcast live on SBS on Saturday, February 9, 2019.
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