Australia 2026: Delta Goodrem with ‘Eclipse’

Australia debuted in the contest 11 years ago in Vienna and Delta Goodrem has been a persistent rumour/hope for them. It’s finally happening this time:

As said these Delta rumours have always generated a bit of optimism around Australia and that peaked when 'Eclipse', turned out to be less dated or anonymous than could have been the case. Don't get me wrong, there is certainly a strong 2014-15 vibe here in terms of Eurovision with this being the sort of entry that in those days and with early Australian participation excitement would have been fancied even more, perhaps justifying the 8s this briefly reached.

We've had the full songs released the past days and the recap of the 35 is available on YouTube and from all of the 'favourites' I think this struggles the most in really staking it's claim in the lineup. 'Eclipse' is a well written song that goes through the gears well and Delta will no doubt belt this out live just as well as in studio but there is something lacking here - that sense of identity, the sense you're seeing something at Eurovision impressive that you wouldn't elsewhere. I enjoy this a lot through it's runtime, but for it to be enough people's favourite and get phones picked up is a seperate quality.

Australia should safely qualify this year and could maybe reach for the top 3 in the semi depending on jury enthusiasm. In the final I'm not really sure where this ends up but I don't expect the Televote to be amazing - not Isaiah Firebrace or Sheldon Riley but also sub 100 points almost with certainty unless the demographics and voting of this year skew old - this just doesn't have appeal for younger viewers and suffers from the eastern shift likely. Even on the jury side in the final, I think the contest has just moved on a bit too much for this to get a really strong push. My guess would be 140 on the jury, 50 on the Televote or something like that and I don't see this as a contender for the overall win.

Personal Rating: 15/20

Televote Potential: 12/20

Jury Potential: 18/20

Staging Potential: 15/20

Track Record: 13/20

Overall Rating: 73/100

Early Prediction: Semi 2 3rd-6th, 8th-12th in the Final.

Volatility Factor: 2/5 Delta will certainly deliver live and there's a chance the juries do indeed push this very hard, but that seems more dependent on others not fulfilling promise and I do think the Televote will prevent a top 5 spot