As a long time fan you would know that many do not vote for us because we are nowhere near of Europe. Due to our good entries since taking part this has diminished by the fans of ESC. But at grand-final there are mostly watchers that know next to nothing about the contest and before the voting it is not explained that Australia is a legitimate entry.
The semi-final Australia won with 100% televote, must have been fans that understand Eurovision, at the final then lots of new people.
Also there was the crazy SWE - FIN battle and the votes went to them when normally they would spread.
Would be interesting to know the call-in figures from semis and grand-finale.
Anyway as for now Australia is not a participating country any more. Could be we get to enter if many others pull out and they need the money and to fill the slots.
Juries did not judge according to criteria , they don't have to justify themselves - they failed. Did they take their task not serious, were they corrupt or incompetent? A bit of everything most likely. I want them out. 100% televote only.
Once again, I'm not saying I was happy with the jury results since many songs that probably should have been rewarded by juries were let down. Likewise, however, many good songs were let down by the televoters as well. The juries are not perfect but to do away with them without even considering reforming them seems ridiculous. They end up balancing each other out, and I was actually more OK with the overall results than the individual components.
Can't believe I'm already considered a long time fan, but fans who have been around since the 2000s would remember the horrid years during that period (100% televote). Even if we do go back to 100% televote, I guarantee that people will complain no matter what as long as they don't agree with the results. Even this year, people are complaining about Spain finishing last in televote and Austria flopping due to being first in the RO, or how the top couple of songs always suck up the votes that the rest of the songs have to scramble for the few remaining points.
And come on, have some faith in Australia. I feel like at this point, it will feel weird to not have you guys in Eurovision. Even if I'm not always a fan of Australian entries, they are almost always staged well (minus maybe two or three). If Kate Miller-Heidke can get a televote score that is fairly similar to the jury score, other Australian acts can too.