There’s no sound of silence down in Australia right now. That’s because their newly crowned Queen of Eurovision Dami Im has just returned back home to Brisbane — and to plenty of cheers, flashing cameras and applause.
After winning the jury vote and receiving second place overall at Eurovision 2016 with her song “Sound of Silence”, Dami finds herself at the centre of an Australian media storm – with major television networks battling each other for exclusive interviews and performances. Like a side of spicy kimchi, Dami is hot and in demand!
INTERVIEW: DAMI IM AT EUROVISION 2016
Dami hung around Stockholm following Eurovision to take advantage of the country’s brilliant songwriters and to create some new music.
And as she did her thing in Sweden, Australians were brimming with excitement as they waited for her return. Dami, who many viewed as just “another talent show winner” prior to Eurovision, is now seen as a national hero. It’s no wonder the media are prepared to fight for a piece of Dami.
INTERVIEW: DAMI IM SPEAKS TO “THE PROJECT” ON NETWORK TEN
In Dami’s first interview back in Australia, the panel on Network Ten’s “The Project” were quick to talk about the controversies surrounding the victory of Ukraine. Among them was the suggestion that the winning song “1944” had been performed several years ago, thereby breeching the rules of the contest.
Dami channeled Miss Universe in her answer. Diplomatic and sincere, she explained that she had such a great time in Stockholm and that “you have to accept what the umpire says”.
The following morning saw a small media war take place over Dami. news.com.au reported that leading breakfast television shows “Sunrise” on Channel Seven and “Today” on Channel Nine both aired “exclusive” pre-recorded interviews with Dami at the same time and both claim they will be present at Dami’s homecoming celebrations at her hometown of Logan in Queensland next week.
Channel Nine is listed as an official sponsor of the homecoming celebrations – suggesting that the “Sunrise” team might be gatecrashing the party.
INTERVIEW: DAMI IM ON “SUNRISE” ON CHANNEL SEVEN
In an interview with Channel Seven’s “Sunrise” — one of the biggest breakfast television shows in Australia — Dami compared her feelings of pride for representing her country to the famous Australian athlete Cathy Freeman at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Dami again brushed off claims that she should’ve won over Jamala from Ukraine, saying that “it’s in the Australian spirit to be good sports”.
Everything post-Eurovision is coming up roses for Dami. Several dates in her “Yesterday Once More” tour are starting to sell out and “Sound of Silence” is still charting well in Australia and Europe. We can’t wait to see what this Asian Sensation serves up next!
God! The Australians are even more bitter than us Brits! The presenters on that interview are atrocious. Report on ‘controversy’ about the winner, yes, but to simply badmouth the organisers of the content shows that perhaps you aren’t so grateful and don’t respect your place in the Contest! You put on a spectacular act and Dami was sensational but the organisers of the contest, who apply the rules deserve respect if you wish to stay in the contest.
@ct_greece You don’t hesitate to criticize Australia’s participation in the Eurovision contest but can’t deal with the heat when someone gives it back to you. Your comments are biased and don’t hold any merit. You accuse Australia of ‘buying’ its way into the contest like we did some dirty backhand deal. Now if memory serves me correctly, part of the reason why Greece is in such financial turmoil is because this kind of thing has been rife in your country for a very long time. Don’t accuse me of being a bigot because I’ve experienced these things first hand in… Read more »
In my opinion Dami Im was better than Jamala. Jamala`s song broke rules. It`s political song which played before 1 st September.
@nn
Australia came in second cause the musical experts know which act is worthy of the points. You’re just being salty maybe because your country sunk this year or just some Australian’s participation hater. Get real and learn the fact.
@ct_greece Care to tell me where I went wrong on the math there? Any good mathematician show’s his work though, and I ain’t got anywhere to be for a few minutes, so I’ll humor you. CT’s ridiculous unprovable claim of live Eurovision voters in Oz: 300,000 Australia’s Population: Estimated 24.1 million (Rounded up to 25 mil for simplicity’s sake) The United States’ Population: Estimated 323.6 million (Rounded up to 325 mil for simplicity’s sake) Factor: The US has 13.4 times Australia’s Population (Rounded to 13 with the simplistic figures) 300,000 viewers * 13 = 3.9 million viewers. Hunh. Of course,… Read more »
@ pollaski
Like with all hooligans, mathematics is not your strong subject. Along with basic manners. Unfortunately, money doesn’t buy these things.
@ct_Greece learned a new word today! HOOLIGANISM. If you think being called a mentally ill bigot by a guy you’ve never met on a message board based on your comments is “hooliganism”, then you are a psychologically weak individual. Even going off your ridiculous “300,000” claim (the lowest number anyones given is 394,000, and that’s leaving the coding error that credited part of the show with the following program.)- expanding that out in terms of American viewers (considering the USA has 13 times the population of Australi)- that’s 3.9 million. That finishes SECOND for Saturday night primetime in the USA… Read more »
@ct_greece shut the fuck up. Around 80% of all Australians have Euroean ancestry – British, Italian, French, Greek, Russian, Serbian, Bosnian, Maltese etc. Australia is EUROPEAN. At least much more culturally European than Israel, Armenia and Azerbaijan for sure. You’re obviously just bitter that Australia are doing so well by sending quality entries and Greece are doing crap. And about Asiavision – NO ONE will watch it and no one will care. Aussies are not Asian at all and will completely stand out in the competition. Stay mad and bitter – I really hope Kazakhstan joins next year just to… Read more »
We came close second in our second year, and a large chunk of the hardcore ESC fans didn’t want us there in the first place. Of course, people are going to be salty about it. Who said fandoms aren’t toxic af? There will always be conspiracy theories, rumours, and those sorts of things from bitter, hypocritical people who have nothing better to do other than demonstrate their ignorance on the internet. Ukraine are dealing with it as the winners this year, and unfortunately, we’re also going to be used as the scapegoat for all the problems entrenched in the EBU’s… Read more »
@ Vasiliki “Australians in general are very open minded people…From my experience holidaying in Greece, there’s a lot of very opinionated and extremely closed mind set people” Really? Who is the bigot here again? As I wrote earlier, trying to paint anyone who objects to Australia buying their way into the contest with the brush of bigotry is an example of pro-australian hooliganism running amuck. Since you are in a european forum, please do refrain from the latest anglo-american fad of calling a bigot anyone who disagrees with you. Associate members don’t send songs – they never did. This is… Read more »
@ct_Greece I’m a Greek Australian and am disgusted by your blatant bigotry comments about my country’s participation in the Eurovision contest. It’s clearly a case of you feeling threatened by our success in the short two years we’ve been participating. Australia has been an EBU Associative Member for over 30 years. We have earned our rights to be in the contest and hope this will continue. My country is a melting pot of many different European nations coming together and we know how to get along with each other. Respect and acceptance goes hand in hand here. Australians in general… Read more »
Australia is on 2nd place only thanks to overrated points by juries.
@ct_greece
Now i see your point … your explanation is make sense , but still i personally enjoy Australia performances..so i really dont mind that they will be a part of this competition.. after all its only sport and its only songs and if Australia love so much the Eurovision.. so why not?
@ pollaski Questioning people’s mental health is just the latest example of pro-australian hooliganism that is sadly very common among commenters in this site. The real number of australians who watched the live telecast of the final was 300 thousand and 400 thousand watched the prime time re-run. Everything else about people watching on YouTube etc. are just numbers people pull out of their hats. These are pitiful numbers, even lower than last year when Australia wasn’t even among the favourites. Comparing Australia to Israel is also pretty desperate. Israel is an actual member of the EBU just like all… Read more »
I don’t know where these Australian media outlets are getting the notion that “1944” was performed three years ago… it was 1 year ago, not 3, and the EBU has already dismissed the complaint as they have for several other songs in the past where the early performance did not lead to any significant advantage. This is the rule – it’s not “against the rules” as the Australian media claim.
I’m glad Dami is able to step above that pettiness as we’d expect from such a wonderful singer and personality 🙂
Seriously, Dami must be the best Eurovision singer ever! Her performance in Stockholm was flawless and that’s why she deserved to win the jury vote. Her song may not have been the best but she made it much better with her killer vocals! Comparing her to Sergey is like comparing a diamond to an average stone. Thank God the juries (who obviously know what quality music means) had Australia and Ukraine higher than Russia. Good luck with your career Dami, you are very talented 🙂
well that was funny i mean she was at the same hour in both channels! LOL hahah and also she is going to sing SOS on Sunrise Channel 7 but another event in her old school singing too! but televised on Channel 9 next week on The Today Show
@Dan
WHere you getting your numbers from? The articles I found said half a mil. If you’re right, and that four million is true, then a sixth of Australia tuned in to watch a music contest at 4 in the morning. That’s ungodly amazing.
@ct_greece You betray your mental health issues from the start with this crackpot theory that Oz is buying votes in the contest. And your belief that a fourth place finish in televoting is a “LOUD AND CLEAR” rejection of Australia’s participation in the contest. Furthermore, your concept of “angloamerican” music is a pathetically incorrect one. Anyone with an ear can discern that british music and American music are distinctly different styles, and Australian music is an entirely different horse altogether. Just because we speak the same language (the language that, incidentally 40 countries sang at least a part of their… Read more »
Australia serves qualities to this competition and they are entitled to compete if they are invited next year! Some bigots should just let it go. Dami is the best vocalist from this year and that’s the reason why she won the jury votes by a huge margin. She deserves the attention from the media currently and she successfully proves to those haters who thought she’d flop in the competition.
Dami is a talented musician and a gracious loser. She respects the outcome as do many people in Australia. Can’t wait to see her in November 2016. I don’t propose to get embroiled in the debate about Australia’s participation or any other country participating who is not geographically located in Europe but is nevertheless a member of the European Broadcasting Union because of the content and the values their broadcaster subscribes to. I also disagree with however is incorrect analysis of Australian ratings in some previous posts. Over 3.7 million people tuned into Eurovision 2016. That’s one in every six… Read more »
The Project were joking guys….they’re the last people to go super nationalistic- it’s a left wing leaning show in Australia. People are just elated that they did so well in something they’re enthusiastic about. And Australia did deserve to do well, and the fourth place in the televote shows that many Europeans were fine with their participation.
@ct_greece But there are some other states who aren’t located in europe , like: israel and armenia, israel participate becouse all of her neighbours are enemy’s states so the u.n decided that israel belonges to europe in a compatitions and also that the style of israel is like western country so mentality israel more belonge to europe…so maybe its the same with australia ( beside the enemy’s States)
@ OR Because of comments like yours. Nobody waited around for Australia to “raise” the level of the contest – the contest was doing just fine without all this implicit arrogance. And even if we did, a show-offish campathon like “Sound of Silence” definitely does not raise the level of anything. It is the job of the UK to bring current angloamerican pop music in the contest but if the BBC treats it as a joke, that doesn’t mean we should be shopping around for someone else to do the job at the other side of the world. Let Australia… Read more »
@ct_greece
Why you think that Australia dont deserve participate at the eurovision?
I think that Europe should say thanks to Australia for raising up the level of this competition with wonderful songs and performance’s..
So go Australia!! and keep participate next year!
Honestly I’m so embarrassed for Dami having to deal with us stupid prideful Aussies who can’t get facts straight (1944 did NOT break the release date rules, it needed to have been COMMERCIALLY released before Sep 1 to have broken them). I expect Sunrise to play up on vocal minority outrage but not The Project and Waleed Aly of all people. She looked really uncomfortable having to answer these questions. But she stuck through it, everything she said showed that she’s such a good sport and has a wonderful, quirky personality. Along with her killer voice, there’s really no question… Read more »
@ pollaski
Keep your characterisations to yourself. The ratings in Australia were pitiful this year and so is their effort to buy Eurovision through compliant EBU juries.
I hope the special invitation gets rescinded next year. Nobody likes a guest who overstays.
Talent, class, dignity, and graciousness, and a genuine love for the contest and the spirit of it all.
Two consecutive years Australia has given this to the ESC, and there’s no reason to doubt that if they come back, they’d do it again.
I’ll just out and out say it- anyone who still doesn’t believe Australia belongs in the ESC because of geography is mentally ill, like most bigots are.
Dami was a stunning ambassador for her country from the moment she landed in Stockholm. She set out to showcase Australia as the wonderful country it is and she more than achieved that. It is beautiful to hear her say that she had the best experience of her life so far in her time at Eurovision, because that was the wish of her fans. The fact that she topped Semi Final 2, topped the Jury Vote, took out 2nd Place in the Contest and that her song entry Sound of Silence won the Marcel Bezençon Composer Award, given to the… Read more »
Dami im is an amazing Singer and a great performer, she is down to Earth and loves her Country. All she wants is to be accepted and acknowledged that she is an Australian. Many Australians complained about her being chosen to be our representative, those people have now been silenced, but Dami’s Music is still struggling. Australia does not deserve her music has been more accepted overseas than here. The Australian market is a tough market on artists and it is a shame. Dami will continue to try and be the best she can.
Also I just watched the Sunrise video, David Koch is a knob and his opinions do not represent the Eurovision fans of Australia 😛
Bahaha. She gets plenty of support here in Australia. A week before she went to Stockholm she performed on Sunrise, the same show she was on after her return. She’s only released three albums, and two of those albums are mostly covers, so it’s not that they don’t give her enough media attention.
Dami is the most beautiful girl in the competition this year , and the most beautiful vocalist with amazing performance!! actually the best performance in the final this year.. i really think that the victory was stolen from her …For me she is the real winner I listing to her song all the time 🙂
That interview where Dami was emotional & teary was a combination of all the hard & dedicated work she poured into Eurovision & how proud she was in representing her Country, her fear & concern has always been not having people turn up to her “National Tour” Concerts & within 24 Hrs after that interview 5K Tickets were Sold. Dami is truly a Musician/Vocalist of the highest calibre & one that comes along every few generations. We are lucky to witness such a supremely gifted Musician & the World Music Industry & Music lovers are the beneficiaries.
@PaulH You said it and I couldn’t agree more
i came across an interview she did after eurovision where she broke down towards the end because she was so happy to represent her country. she is so awesome! <3
#justicefordami
She was the best Eurovision singer this year, and it’s funny to read that the Aussies didn’t realize what a star they have in Dami Im. Now that she is the queen of Eurovision they set about bashing the whole contest and complain that she was so great that she was robbed of first place and was the rightful winner! It cracks me up that they have TV networks fighting over access to her and to have her appear on their shows, where were they in previous years when she was already a great singer? Dami should come to stay… Read more »
Dami is the greatest. Her new album of “”The Carpenters”” is just so beautiful. And such a good sport… It is big shame when just because dumb EBU decide to change rules it does not just change the rules but the winner too. That is going too far for me but the winner is the winner. 🙂
Some people say that Eurovision harms reputations, and for some poeple in some countries that might be true. But I’ve been shocked at the number of people who I didn’t think had any time for Eurovision who have been glowing about her personality, her performance, her voice… Eurovision has made her properly a star down here. Would’ve been nice if she’d won the microphone, but she’s definitely come home from Stockholm a winner 🙂