Australia 2025: Go-Jo with Milkshake Man
SBS have unveiled their act for Basel, this time putting in more effort than combing through past national finals with Go-Jo.
Australia do seem best placed sending something cool to Eurovision playing into the party side of things and Go-Jo definitely fits into that. He's a charismatic performer very much in the current ESC era Mold and that is half the battle for a country with a somewhat continual need to justify their presence. There are shades of Rim Tim Tagi Dim here as a jokey song but with some actually production and competence behind it. There is though an aspect of "trying too hard" and I'm not sure the Milkshake metaphors can sustain a full 3 minutes here. Great for a 30 second tiktok, but I do find my interest fading by the end of this.
As with most gimmicky songs - and yeah the lyrics put him in that group at least to some degree- the staging potential is high here. We saw Australia bring a car to the stage a few years ago and we could get a milkshake van on stage depending just how much they want to lean into this. There is more of a balance here between presenting this as a song that just happens to have wacky lyrics (I'd include Malta there) and where that is the core theme (Estonia and Finland).
Year on year the juries have shown a generous liking to Australia and I think we have to accept that tag is likely to help again lend this some additional credibility. This will do better with juries than if Moldova had sent it for example. I wonder even if this does better on the jury vote than with the public if this does make the final, of which there is a very high chance. This could be a semi opener but it's looking very likely Ireland have that honour and this is pushed right to the back of the first half. I have a very long list of potential semi winners there which this now joins but also finishing as low as 6th or 7th wouldn't be a massive shock. It's quite an open semi - depending of course on whether Israel's support is maintained.
Overall, I'm not sure on this. I feel like I've placed half the field in that 8-13th range already but that also feels the most likely outcome for this. 100 on the jury - 70 on the public - something in that region. Is there any chance at the win since this has been matched in the 20s? I don't think so. There's not been much time for this to settle in the existing lineup but so far I don't actually see it standing out enough or leaving a lasting impression in a 26 song field with a lot of fun entries already there. That's my initial take but I'll be seeing where the momentum goes with this.
Personal Rating: 12/20
Staging Potential: 18/20
Televote Potential: 14/20
Jury Potential: 14/20
Track Record: 16/20
Total Rating: 74/100
Early Prediction: Semi Two 3rd-6th, 8th-13th in the final.