Key Points
- Voyager's song Promise won over fan votes from the 37 countries competing at this year's song contest.
- They will compete in the grand final on Sunday 14 May at 5:00am AEST.
- If they win they would be the first Australians to do so.
Australia's Voyager have made it through to the Eurovision Song Contest grand final.
The band are among 16 countries' acts who performed in Friday's semi-final and are among the 10 to make it through to Sunday's grand final.
Their song Promise won over fan votes from the 37 countries competing at this year's 67th Eurovision Song Contest.
"Thank you to our incredible team and everyone who voted for us. Holy moly," the band wrote on Instagram.
"EUROVISION GRAND FINAL HERE WE COME!!!!
WE PROMISE YOU IT'S GONNA BE ALRIGHT!!!!" the post continued.
The contest is being held in the English city of Liverpool, where performers from 37 countries are competing in the world's largest television music competition.
It is hosted by the UK on behalf of Ukraine, whose Kalush Orchestra claimed victory last year.
The Australians will join the top 10 along with Lithuania, Poland, Armenia, Slovenia. Albania, Cyprus, Estonia, Belgium and Austria in the grand final on Saturday, UK time.
“We kind of felt relaxed about it, we did everything we possibly could, so we were like well, we played a pretty good gig, if they don’t like it! Well…” bassist Alex Canion told SBS News.
“We’ve got a couple of ideas for the grand final, it’s a 12 point plan (laughs)… we’ll take the car off stage, bring in something else," he said.
The band had said that becoming 'a part of the Eurovision family' by taking part in the semi-final has already exceeded their expectations, so they weren't feeling pressure to take out the trophy or even reach the finals.
"You are fiercely competitive in some ways but in other ways, you're just all there to have a good time and perform to the best of your abilities and it's all about the music for the end of the day," lead singer and keytarist Danny Estrin told AAP.
"Does it mean we don't have what it takes to win it? I think we do."
But if worst comes to worst, the group is philosophical.
"We're a progressive metal band from Perth, Western Australia, playing Eurovision in Liverpool. I mean, how could we ever consider ourselves losers in this," Mr Canion said.
Unlike many competitions in life, a music contest can come down to tastes and on-the-day performance, the band said.
"We're not running a hundred-metre race. Well we are, but we've all got different costumes on," said Mr Estrin, adding their finals costumes would be "extra".
And with a potential final audience of some 180 million viewers, the exposure is second to none, drummer Ashley Doodkorte said.
"On the day, on the night, we all get that same three minutes in front of that same audience. Everyone wins," Doodkorte said.
Eurovision should go some way to developing a global following for the band that has existed in one form or another for some two decades.
"This has all been an elaborate and highly effective album release strategy for our eighth album which comes out after we finish Eurovision," part-time lawyer Estrin joked.
"Already, up to this point now, we've already won."
They will be hoping to place higher than Australia's entrant last year Sheldon Riley, who came 15th with his song Not the Same.
Dami Im has been the highest-ranked Australian in the Eurovision Song Contest since 2015.
Reporting from the streets of Liverpool ahead of the on Thursday night local time (Friday 5am AEST), Lewis acted surprised as singer Daniel Estrin of Perth band Voyager wandered past.
"It's funny who you meet on the streets of Liverpool," he said.
"I don't even know where I am," joked Estrin, who was wearing a houndstooth suit jacket, his trademark long hair blowing in the wind.
