Oh Australia, the land I call home! For something that was meant to be a ‘one-off’ we must have made a pretty great impression on Europe to now be making our 4th appearance at Eurovision this year. Early on in the national final season, it was announced that Jessica Mauboy will be returning to Eurovision, this time as a competitor rather than an interval act, which she was a part of in 2014. With a string of success, the pressure is on Jessica to keep Australia in the Top 10, but will she be able to do it?
We loved Guy Sebastian, we loved Dami Im and Isaiah, and it’s pretty safe to say that Jessica Mauboy is in that category too. She will be performing her upbeat and uplifting song We Got Love at Eurovision, and it couldn’t be any stronger from the popular Australian artist. In typical Eurovision style, the song was leaked early, although not the final cut, but instantly fans were torn about the Aussie entry. From the first moment, I was a huge fan of our entry, and felt incredibly proud of what we’d been waiting all these months for!
The song starts with the focus on Jessica’s voice, then we hear the bang of the drums and it all kicks into an absolute bop. Although Dami Im absolutely slayed her vocal performance back in 2016, we found her song to be quite repetitive, and quite similarly Isaiah had quite a repetitive song, and although written by the same people, this feels different. It could have simply gone from verse to chorus, verse, chorus, but I like that we hear something different in the second verse, and it helps really build the song. That’s something that this song really has right, is that over the three minutes it really builds into an epic ending. It still has those opportunities in the final chorus to let Jessica bring out some unexpected but huge notes like Dami did in 2016, and that’s something that will once again push Australia into the Top 10.
An epic song needs an epic staging, and that’s something that could change the fate of this song. I think their aesthetic for the music video was pretty much on point. It feels modern and simple, but super eye catching, so if something like the music video is replicated, perhaps even with an LED light prop, I think this will only lift the song more.
All aboard… the one love train!
Love is love, and this is such a good anthem for all things love. Will Europe love it enough to finally let Australia win the contest? Well, I don’t know if that will ever happen, as it feels like they always like to keep us at arm’s length, but this will surely slot into the Top 10, and perhaps Top 5 pending the stage performance. If we can master the visuals, and if Jessica can pull out a Dami level performance, I would say that Australia can pull both jury and televotes to give us another great result.
Being in semi-final 2, I think there’s a strong chance we will qualify somewhere in the top 3 or so, with our toughest competition probably being Sweden. Either way, I think we’re a pretty safe bet to qualify through to the final! It’s another entry to be proud of, and as much as I like to try keep bias out of my reviews, I can’t help but feel pride with this one!
Our rating: 9/10
If you support Australia at Eurovision, make sure to vote for Jessica in our Eurovision 2018 poll! Watch her official video below, and check out our Eurovision 2018 playlist on Spotify.
