As you may have noticed, we are slowly catching with all the good, bad and the middle ground of Asian Australian things. Here is another major thing which needs to be reported on. A week or so before The Australian federal election, Sheldon Riley did Australia proud and came 15th in the Eurovision Grand Final.
What is interesting about Australia’s representation at Eurovision, is that there have been a number if Asian Australians. Here they are, the years they represented Australia and their rank at Eurovision. FYI Dami Im, who was The Australian entrant in 2016 performed the best by coming 2nd!
- 2015 – GUY SEBASTIAN who came 5th;
- 2016- DAMI IM who came 2nd;
- 2018 – JESSICA MAUBOY who came 20th – Mauboy is part First Nation and part Asian;
- 2022- SHELDON RILEY who came 15th
We also want to make a special mention that in addition to Mauboy, ISAIAH who was Australia’s 2017 entrant is First Nations and came 9th.
Sheldon achieved Australia fifth best placing at Eurovision, only behind legends such as Im and Sebastian. Riley released a statement about how he felt competing for Australia at the 2022 Eurovision:
“In 2014 I PROMISED myself that one day I’d perform at The Eurovision Song Contest and make something of myself that I could be proud of.
I have lost SO many times.
This time, I won.
I will never forget this moment. I have a feeling you might see me again, but now, it’s time to take my mask off and for the first time love the man behind the crystals.
ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. ANYTHING.”
What a humble guy! The clothes and how he looked was so awesome that it caught the eye of Vogue Italia and New York Times. All the best to his future!