As Tone Deaf reported yesterday, after much deliberation, the Australian artist who will be sent to Vienna, Austria to represent us during our debut at the Eurovision Song Contest has finally been announced and it’s freaking Guy Sebastian.
While many, including Triple J, weren’t exactly thrilled with the rather uninspired selection, Melbourne metal outfit Barbariön’s recent open letter is arguably the best articulation of why Sebastian was the wrong choice to represent Australia at Eurovision.
“Us Australians love an underdog,” their open letter, addressed to Eurovision broadcasters SBS and shared via the band’s official Facebook page, begins. “We love watching the little guy punch above his weight. We love the story of the battler.
“With so many excellent local acts working tirelessly around Australia to entertain the average punter… it seemed only appropriate you support them and give them an opportunity to show the world what Australian music really is!”
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“You have always been the voice of the least represented in our society,” they continue. “You have always been the epicenter of our cultural and artistic diversity, and now when granted the golden opportunity to promote our capable local music scene you have sold out, big time!”
“It didn’t have to be Barbariön. It could have been any one of a hundred local acts, from the hundreds of genres. Someone the nation could rally around and be inspired by. Someone a little off ya know, a dag, take a bit of risk mate.”
“You’re sending a beige coloured Volvo full of Subway rolls into a world full of high camp theatrics and bonkers mayhem,” they write, taking a stab at the Australian Idol winner. “The blokes [sic] gonna get destroyed. You’ve completely missed the point.”
“Barbariön did submit an official entry to be considered for Eurovision. We wrote it last weekend. We tried to capture the cheese of Eurovision, the great things about Australia, and the might of Barbariön all within 3 minutes.”
Readers can check out Barbariön’s Eurovision entry, ‘Rock, Down Under’, below. The band had previously put their hand up for the weighty task in another Facebook open letter, in which they assured SBS that choosing the band would “unite the nation, boost the economy and establish a tourism boom like never before”.
