Australia is sailing to Vienna, Austria, in the hope of swathing itself in Eurovision glory against 35 other countries, most of them — as the name suggests — from Europe. The 70th Eurovision Song Contest will air on SBS between May 13 and May 17, with Delta Goodrem representing Down Under with her song “Eclipse”, and there’s so much more to it than just a bunch of countries competing in a song contest.
In addition to the pre-season parties, there’s a lot they don’t tell you about Eurovision. There are secret run-throughs that precede the official stage and dress rehearsals, they time the songs so nobody goes over three minutes, and despite modern technology, they still use an antiquated scoring system invented when the elves ran Norway.
So, ahead of the competition kicking off this week, strap in for the behind-the-scenes, you-wouldn’t-believe-it-even-though-we-know-it’s-true Eurovision guide. Here’s everything you need to know before you tune into Europop’s party of the year.
1. There is an actual party “pre-season”
The Eurovision diehards don’t wait until May to get their glittery groove on. The celebrations actually began back in March when Oslo hosted a Nordic Eurovision pre-party — which featured a performance from our very own Delta — followed by Amsterdam’s Eurovision Concert, Bucharest’s Eurovision pre-party and London’s Euro Rave Ball in April.
2. There are secret rehearsals
Leave it to Europe to have some international intrigue, but before the 35 countries bring their performances onto the stage for everyone to see in competition week, secret rehearsals take place.
There are two rounds of rehearsals at this point, and as you can imagine, with 35 countries, stage time is at a premium. The first rehearsal is 30 minutes per country, and the second is 20 minutes per country. After each one, they are allowed to “tweak” their performances, camera angles and choreography.
First-look photos of each country are then shared on social media to tease the performances, and if Delta’s are anything to go by, it’s going to be an incredible show.
3. Australia isn’t the only non-European country competing
Plenty of non-European countries have competed at different times in Eurovision’s seven-decade-long history, including Australia, Israel, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Morocco (only once in 1980).
Australia officially entered the competition in 2015 when Guy Sebastian performed “Tonight Again” (he came fifth!), and our highest-ranking appearance was a year later in 2016, when Dami Im performed “Sound of Silence” and finished second. We’ve failed to qualify three times, including Montaigne in 2021, Electric Fields in 2024 and Go-Jo in 2025, but Delta is an early favourite to win Eurovision 2026 as she’s currently climbing fan polls and betting odds.
4. There are strict rules for the songs
Anyone who goes over the three-minute rule gets a smack. Not joking, the organisers have a hard and fast rule that Eurovision songs must be performed in less than three minutes, and there are no exceptions. During the rehearsal phase, a lot of time is spent backstage, tightening up performances and staging to fit under the ticking clock.
It makes sense given some of the worst Eurovision offenders — think Jemini singing “Cry Baby” for the UK in 2003, or Dustin the Turkey singing “Irelande Douze Pointe” for Ireland in 2008 — were so utterly dreadful, the very thought of them going overtime is too much to bear. The longest song ever? Before the three-minute-rule was imposed, Italy’s Nunzio Gallo, singing “Corde della Mia Chitarra” in 1957, clocked in at five minutes, nine seconds. Oh, Nunzio!
Other rules for Eurovision songs are that they must be original compositions (so no covers, samples or remixes), they must not contain political, commercial or offensive content, and they must be performed by artists ages 16 or older. As for the actual performance, only a maximum of six people are allowed on stage, all lead vocals must be live, and all instruments seen on stage must be mimed.
5. Nobody sings worse than Norway
Oh, Eurovision… the European summer romance of mixed fortunes. San Marino, one of Europe’s tiniest countries, has only qualified for the final four times and has never placed higher than 19th. Meanwhile, Montenegro has only ever qualified for the final twice and has never placed higher than 13th.
But the truly grim fairy tale belongs to Norway, which has placed at the bottom of the Eurovision scoreboard no less than 11 times — in 1963, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1990, 1997, 2001, 2004, and 2012. There is a silver lining, though: in 1985, 1995 and 2009 they actually won!
6. Sweden and Ireland are Eurovision pros
On the flip side, Sweden and Ireland share a joint record of seven wins in the Eurovision Song Contest. Ireland holds the distinction of winning three times back-to-back-to-back in 1992, 1993 and 1994, but hasn’t won in 30 years and has only qualified for the grand finale twice in the past 11 years.
Meanwhile, Sweden has had the majority of its wins in the 21st century and consistently ranks in the top 10, most recently winning in 2023. Both Sweden’s Loreen and Ireland’s Johnny Logan are also both the only two performers who have won Eurovision twice as a singer.
7. The scoring system makes no sense
Yup, even to those of us who go every year.
One of the weirdest things about Eurovision, and one of the toughest to get your head around, is exactly how they work out who wins. If you’re an endurance-running fan and you tune in every year, you will know that it takes almost as long to score the competing songs as it takes to perform them on stage. Sometimes longer!
Despite this, tropes like “Hello Riga, can we have your points please?” have become something of a cliché in the Eurovision world, and in many ways, the scoring is the best half of the night.
In simple terms, this is how it works: a professional jury and the TV audience in each country score other countries in order, highest to lowest, with the highest getting 12 points, then 10, and then eight through to one. Plus, there is a TV audience “Rest of the World” vote, which comes from phone votes in non-participating countries. The scores are aggregated, and the countries are ranked — laboriously — in order.
If you can manage to comprehend how all of that sums together, congratulations, your acceptance letter to work at NASA is in the mail. But for the rest of us, tune in from May 13 for the musical mayhem and leave the counting to the geniuses!
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