Australia has become a (semi) permanent member of Eurovision
Good news for Eurovision fanatics from Down Under – Australia has secured a spot in the song contest until 2023.
This year's contest in Tel Aviv, Israel, in May will mark Australia's fifth year taking part, but until now, it's been by invitation of the European Broadcast Union each year.
"We are delighted that Australia has become a more permanent member of the Eurovision Song
Contest family," said Jon Ola Sand, the executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest.
"The Australians have long been huge fans of the event with a great number of loyal viewers year on year and when they were invited to participate in the 60th anniversary edition of the contest, we couldn't have imagined quite how popular their artists would become.
"It was a natural progression for us to agree to their inclusion as a participant for the next five years as they bring so much to the table."
Australia's love for the Eurovision has been going on for 35 years, when SBS first started broadcasting the contest.
In 2014, Australia were invited to participate with Jessica Mauboy taking to the stage as an interval act singing Sea of Flags during the second semi-final in Denmark.
This year, SBS, along with production company Blink TV, ran a competition, aptly named Australia Decides, to let the country choose the artist and song.
Last weekend, Kate Miller-Heidke and her song Zero Gravity beat stiff competition and will represent Australia at the 64th annual Eurovision song contest.
The Eurovision Song Contest is the world's largest television music competition and in 2018, it attracted around 186 million viewers worldwide and more than 2.9 million Australians.