Eurovision is HERE! Again, during Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month! The Semi Finals are officially starting this evening, and by Saturday, we will have the winner of The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel, Switzerland. Among the rumored winners, scoring often first and second places in online community spaces, is Austria. Represented by JJ with the song “Wasted Love”, broadcaster ORF is presenting an unlikely and uniquely skilled artist. JJ, the contest’s only countertenor will be singing an intense p-opera lament for a lost love, and the odds of him winning for his country are higher than most.
Unique to JJ this year is also being Filipino-Austrian. To celebrate both the contest and the Eurovision universe of acts, let’s take a look into the acts before him who come from people of Southeast Asia and Oceania.
2022 saw Sheldon Riley represent Australia with the ballad “Not The Same”, which scored 15th at the final in Turin. He is Filipino by heritage of his father, and performed his visually stunning number with grand vocals and raw emotion.
Carrying Filipino heritage as well were two acts who performed in the 2021 Contest, which took place in Rotterdam. Montaigne, who represented Australia in Semi Final 1, gave Eurovision one of its most eclectic and complex numbers, Technicolour. In Semi Final 2 competed Austria with Vincent Bueno and his song, Amen. Neither managed to qualify unfortunately, but Montaigne did persist in her ambitions and even earned a Grammy nomination for her songwriting on the soundtrack for the roleplaying adventure game, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical.
Introducing Australia herself to Eurovision 2014 in Copenhagen with the unity anthem “Sea Of Flags”, one of Australia’s prolific pop stars Jessica Mauboy represented the country in Lisbon 2018 with the sweet banger “We Got Love”, which landed 20th in the final. Jessica is Australia’s and Eurovision’s first representative of Aboriginal Australian descent, specifically of the Kuku Yalanji people, in addition to also being of Indonesian heritage.
Acts of Indonesian descent often came from The Netherlands, but they stand to represent a storied group of artists who took the stage in many of Eurovision’s eras.
Taking it back to Australia…
In 2023, the experimental electronic pop duo Electric Fields represented the Land Down Under. The main vocalist, Zaachariaha Fielding, is of Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara descent. Paired with Michael Ross, the two gave viewers “One Milkali (One Blood)”, which included lines in Yankunytjatjara – a first for the contest.
2015 saw Australia’s first entry to the contest, with the country being represented by Malaysian-born Guy Sebastian, and the retro party track “Tonight Again”.
Coming to Eurovision as one of its first Thai singers, Christina Chanée paired with N’evergreen to represent Denmark in Oslo 2010, with the romantic, country-flavored number “In A Moment Like This”. 3rd place is what they achieved that year.
Throwing it all the way back and further into the Pacific Ocean was France’s representative from 1981, Jean Gabilou. Tahitian by heritage, he sang “Humanahum”, which scored 3rd.
The week of Eurovision is hard to predict, and we have less than an idea of how the odds will turn in the favor of some acts versus others. However, at this moment before the show, I can tell you: it’s exciting as a Filipino to know one of us might just win this thing.