Eurovision 2016 Entry: Australia — Dami Im — “Sound of Silence”

Dami Im Dami Im

Is Dami Im a lock for the Eurovision final, or will Australia hear more than one “Sound of Silence”?

Country: Australia
Song Title: “Sound of Silence”
Artist: Dami Im
Second Semi-Final: Position 10
Last year’s entry: “Tonight Again” – Guy Sebastian (5th Place)

Last year, Australia got their debut as a real live Eurovision competitor instead of just an interval act.  They had the benefit of an automatic bye to the final round1.  Last year’s entry, “Tonight Again”, felt like it was pulling as much from current music trends (Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” in particular), and it got a warm reception and 5th place overall.  Now that there’s no automatic placement, how does this year’s entry fare now that all the other competitors have been revealed?

Australia hasn’t made any changes to the song since it first debuted, but they were near the end of the deadline for countries to reveal their entries in the first place, so I didn’t expect any last minute updates.  I’m always surprised by how far down in the rankings this song comes in my own rankings of the entries in the second semi-final; it’s nice, but there are a lot of great entries alongside it that push it further down the list.  That said, it has a lot of factors going for it.  If Dami sounds this good in a tent, imagine how this will sound in an environment that’s more ideally set up for a vocal performer.  Australia still has that new-kid vibe to them as well, which I’m pretty sure will guarantee them a berth in the finale.

Looking at the show lineup, Australia falls in between Lithuania and Slovenia.  “Sound of Silence” sounds a little closer to Danny Montell’s mid-tempo douchestravaganza than Manuella’s country-by-numbers, but I think it stands out enough amongst these to not be negatively affected.  Based on the song and this live performance, I’m expecting something pretty basic on stage in terms of performance.  If a lot of the solo female balladeers go for the same approach, it could affect all of them negatively.  Unlike the European nations, Australia also doesn’t have any guaranteed neighbors to vote for them, making their #DamiArmy campaign a little head-scratching to me, since Aussies can’t vote for themselves.  Still, who am I kidding?  Australia’s still a favorite with the bookies to make the final, so we’ll see how far they can rocket up the final scoreboard in Stockholm.

Eurovision Song Contest Second Semi-Final
May 12, 2016

AlbaniaAustraliaBelarusBelgiumBulgariaDenmarkFYR MacedoniaGeorgiaIrelandIsraelLatviaLithuaniaNorwayPoland Romania SerbiaSloveniaSwitzerlandUkraine

  1. which, going forward, I hope gets extended to any other country making their very first appearance in the contest  

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