In recent weeks Australian broadcaster SBS has given Australians the chance to vote for their favourite songs of Eurovision 2020. On Saturday during primetime, hosts Myf Warhurst and Joel Creasey revealed the results and crowned a virtual winner.
Iceland’s Daði & Gagnamagnið were crowned the winners of Eurovision 2020: Big Night In! It’s not exactly surprising: They topped a similar vote in Sweden just the other night.
As SBS says, “the song became a viral sensation after winning Iceland’s national selection show Söngvakeppnin 2020, gathering more than seven million views on YouTube, and a personal endorsement from Oscar-winner Russell Crowe.”
Russian band Little Big placed second with their Latin-tinged song “Uno”. Lithuania’s The Roop came third with their inspirational song “On Fire” (along with those dance moves).
Australia’s “Eurovision 2020: Big Night In!”
SBS Commissioning Editor and Australian Head of Delegation Josh Martin said:
“Move over Bjork, Australians have voted Daði og Gagnamagnið as our new favourite Icelandic artists with a beautiful song honouring a parent’s love for a newborn. SBS is proud to have given Eurovision fans some sort of closure to this year’s contest and, although we’ll never know who might have won the song contest this year, Montaigne’s performance tonight was incredible. I have no doubt she would have done Australia proud and finished high on the leader board!”
Australians could not vote for Montaigne. They could, however, enjoy her spectacular stage show, which approximated what she would have done in Rotterdam (albeit in a much smaller studio rather than on the grand ESC stage).
Montaigne said:
“To bring a song to life on the Eurovision stage takes a lot of hard-working creative people, and though we don’t get the real stage, I’m grateful that we get to show off our baby — in which we are very proud — to the public. The core team at Blink TV & SBS did an amazing job of finding recruits who understood my niche interests (dungeons & dragons, fantasy, anime & animation) and could fuse that with the emotional content as well as a “popular” aesthetic. Now it’s back to the drawing board. I’m excited to cook up something fresh and new for 2021!”
Eurovision 2020: Big Night In! saw several stars from the world of Eurovision come together to cover Jessica Mauboy’s 2018 song “We Got Love”. Among the stars were Kate Miller-Heidke, Electric Fields, Courtney Act, Jack Vidgen, Jaguar Jonze, Isaiah, Ella Hooper and, of course, Jessica Mauboy. Alfie Arcuri covered Cyprus’ entry for Eurovision 2020, which he helped write.
The show finished with a clip from the Netflix comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. Lars Erickssong (Will Ferrell) and Sigrit Ericksdottir (Rachel McAdams) were seen performing their music video for “Volcano Man”. The clip was a world exclusive for SBS!
Behold: A first look at the Will Ferrell Netflix movie. Will they be the winners of #Eurovision 2020? ??
— wiwibloggs (@wiwibloggs) May 16, 2020
Nice staging indeed, but she was not singing… So, it’s a bit fake is it not?
Oh honey -no one was singing live it was all pre recorded because of the time differences .
The full Australian ranking from Big Night In:
1. Iceland, 2. Russia, 3. Lithuania, 4. Switzerland, 5. Malta, 6. Sweden, 7. Bulgaria, 8. Greece, 9. Germany, 10. Italy, 11. Norway, 12. Azerbaijan, 13. Ukraine, 14. Denmark, 15. Ireland, 16. The Netherlands, 17. Israel, 18. Armenia, 19. Romania, 20. United Kingdom, 21. Belgium, 22. Serbia, 23. France, 24. Latvia, 25. Cyprus, 26. Georgia, 27. San Marino, 28. North Macedonia, 29. Spain, 30. Austria, 31. Finland, 32. Albania, 33. Croatia, 34. Poland, 35. Belarus, 36. Czech Republic, 37. Estonia, 38. Portugal, 39. Slovenia, 40. Moldova
Don’t care about the performance since it’s not the song she will perform next year. Hope she can bring some impactful and unique indie song that doesn’t need choreography.
I don’t like it but it would probably have been much more polished.
Australia almost broke their qualifying rate.
It’s a great staging overall for me. I like how they play with the camera. The only thing that bugs me is her coreography, mostly at the end, but seeing her national final performance, it was expected she would be imcluding some of those moves.
Norway named Iceland as their favourite too, last night.
Mmm… “Don’t Break Me” in its studio cut is my 2nd fav this year but the live performance don’t live up to my expectations. It looks too messy and distracting. Too much going on on screen: her moves, the projections, … . I get the concept behind the performance. Being a puppet, chained, caged and trying to break free, but I don’t really think this would have place top 10. We could even be talking about not qualifying ( 1st was tough). The song didn’t need all of these moves and projections. Also her looks isn’t convincing (why she kept… Read more »
I agree. The studio version is pretty decent, but Montaigne’s live vocals and performance leave A LOT to be desired. Very weak.
Iceland, Russia and Lithuania are doing great across the board. I don’t think they would have cancelled out as some people thought.
What up with that Netflix “vulcano men song” this is not even that eurovision imo. Who agrees?
I loved the concept of this staging! Can I just say the We Got Love montage was also super cool!
Agreed! I think it looks cool and, with a few minor tweaks and touch ups, would have been absolutely flawless at eurovision.
I cried watching it.
I don’t like or click either with that performance. Too much, too dark. Hard to too connect with. Made me think a bit in Iceland 2016.
Oh I don’t like the performance of montaigne.. It’s just too much.
I think the concept has great promise. I can imagine this performed on an actual stage with proper camerawork – it could have been great!
I think that Montaigne’s Australia Decides performance was too cluttered, while this is too stale. I have faith that she’ll bring something much better next year, something along the lines of Ready (my favourite song of hers).
I still don’t get it, and I still think it might have just clocked in at 11th place in a tough semi.
Well I can say with all certainty that I love this!!! The concept is even better than the one in Australia Decides and in the Eurovision stage, with the Eurovision camerawork and LEDs it would have been a performance to remember and a very theatrical and artistic one. Good job Montaigne looking forward to next year!!!