Australia 2023: Voyager with ‘Promise’

Australia turn to last year's national final participants Voyager in potentially (but unlikely) their Eurovision appearance:

To state the obvious, Voyager's attempt in the Australian national final last year was a lot stronger than what we have here. This is very "rock song to fill the melodifestivalen quota" and a pretty repetitive number which also manages to get worse and less cohesive throughout the run time.

As a rule of thumb- average rock can outperform an average ballad or pop song with the public vote, automatically bringing energy and standing out from the field. It's also pretty easy to stage effectively; sort the lighting, pyro and camerawork and allow the band to carry the rest, and Voyager are reliable in this regard.

Whilst this is televote geared, Australia's big challenge is starting on 0 points (with reluctancy to vote for them if anything) in a semi with no juries. For that reason, this can't be a lock for qualification but I am expecting it to do so currently; it's not great by any measure but does feel a bit too strong to miss out given the competition.

Should Australia make the final I'd expect the public vote to fade away in a wider and stronger lineup unless the live is truly exceptional. Even considering jury friendliness to Australia this shouldn't be near the jury top 10 as a composition. I'd guess this is somewhere just clear of the bottom 5 overall but it's not the easiest to pin down.

Personal Rating: 7/10

Competitve Rating: 6/10

Early Prediction: Semi Two 7th-11th, 16th-20th if in the final.