Australia | Meet Kate Miller-Heidke From Autralia

This year will mark the 64th Eurovision Song Contest. The contest will be held in Tel Aviv, Israel, and will see 41 countries compete for the honour of being Europe's best. There will be two semi finals taking place on Tuesday 14th May, and Thursday 16th May. Ten artists from each will progress to the final that will be held on Saturday 18th May 2019. A grand total of twenty six countries will compete to be Netta's successor at the competition. With just a short time until this event, Eurovoxx will bring you a series of meet the artist articles, that will introduce you to each country that will be participating. Today's instalment comes from Australia who will be represented by Kate Miller-Heidke.

Who Is Kate Miller-Heidke?

Kate Miller-Heidke was born on the 16th November 1981, and is 37 years old. She heralds from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and is better known as an actress and singer. This year's Australian representative has many talents. She sings, acts, she can also play the keyboard, and acoustic guitar. Music has always been this talented performers passion. Back in her student days she graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in Classical Voice from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music at Griffith University on full scholarship, followed by a Master of Music degree at Queensland University of Technology. She is now married to guitarist, singer, and songwriter Keir Nuttall, and has one child with him.

As a classically trained opera star she has won several awards are numerous which include the Elizabeth Muir Prize (2000), the Donald Penman Prize (2001), the Linda Edith Allen Memorial Prize (2002) and the Horace Keats Prize (2002). As she is classically trained opera singer, Kate has performed several roles for the English national opera, and in Jerry-Springer at the Sydney Opera House. "The Rabbits" was the first opera that she composed, has sold out venues all over Australia. Her career has seen her nominated for 24 awards winning over 8 of them.

2015 was when her acting career started, when she featured in "The Divorce", a four-part ABC mini-series, and has also appeared in "The Book Of Sand", and "Ladies In Black". Kate is multi talented and can turn her hand to anything, Musically her genre style can be attributed to pop, rock, and opera. She has released four albums in Australia, with all four achieving multi-platinum status, her released song have also appeared in the top 10 singles chart too. "O Vertigo" was her first album that debuted at number four in the charts, and also saw it breaking crowd funding records, as well as being nominated for an Aria award. Her second album, "Nightlife" reached number 2 in the Aria charts. Her third album, "Curiouser" made it to double platinum, whilst two songs from that album, "Last Day On Earth" and "Caught In The Crowd" also went multi-platinum.

There is so much to write about this singer, but to quote the Boarder Mail, Kate has “The finest vocals in Australian music.”

Check Out Kate Miller- Heidke's Eurovision Entry, "Zero Gravity" Below:

How Was Kate Miller- Heidke Chosen?

For the first time ever, Australia had opted to find its singer via a live televised national final. The broadcaster, SBS decided that, "Eurovision- Australia Decides" would be the way the country would chose its artist. The decision was officially announced on the 14th October 2018. The final took place on the 9th February 2019 at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre. The final saw ten artist compete in the packed venue, that saw artists such as Courtney Act, and Electric Fields also compete. The result was decided by a 50% jury vote, and 50% televote. There would be no doubt that Kate Miller-Heidke would win, as she won both the public, and jury vote. The jurors would award her 48 points (1st place), whilst the public would give her 87 of the televotes (also first place), scoring a total of 137 points. The singer won with a clear margin, with 30 points more than her nearest rival, "Electric Fields" and the song "2000 And Whatever" that scored 114 points.

Check Out Andy Reacts To, "Zero Gravity" Below:

Australia At The Eurovision Song Contest

Australia is the newest country at the Eurovision Song Contest. They first debuted as special guest back in 2015 when Guy Sebastian sang, "Tonight". The host broadcaster that year was ORF, whom along with the EBU had granted Australia special permission to join, by celebrating the contests 60th year. Despite being outside of Europe, the country has always had a special relationship with the contest having broadcast the event every year since 1983. In 2002 and 2003 was when Australia had decided to commentate on the event, with 2012 officially flying out to the countries to commentate. In 2014, the country would get one step closer to joining as the Danish broadcaster DR gave SBS a chance to perform in the interval, with the song, "Sea Of Flags". The EBU officially confirmed this year that the country would be guaranteed a place at the contest up until 2023. Securing them for now as a permanent fixture of the contests. Former Australian artists Gina G, and Olivia Newton John have both competed for the United Kingdom in previous years.

This year will mark Australia's 6th participation, and they are only one of two countries that have qualified for every grand final. Three times they have finished in the top ten, and the country nearly secured its first victory in 2016 when Dami Im came second with her song, "Sound Of Silence" scoring 511 points.

At the Eurovision Song Contest Final, Australia has given its most points to Sweden, Belgium, Bulgaria, Israel, Moldova, and United Kingdom. Whilst they have received most of their points from Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Norway, Iceland.

Last year Jessica Mauboy represented Australia once again, officially with "We Got Love". Unfortunately, it was the worst placing for the country ever where it came 20th with 99 points. The jurors awarded it 90 points, whilst the public did not reward it so much by only giving the singer 9 points.

Do you like the song? Will it qualify? Please tell us what you think in the comments below. The whole team at Eurovoxx would like to wish Kate Miller-Heidke a very big "Good Luck".