Australians woke on Sunday morning to find their hopes and aspirations as a nation had been short-circuited by a voting system that must be corrupt at heart.
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Collectively we all hoped that we would be there to herald in a new dawn for our nation.
But it was not to be, and we were left despondent and crest-fallen.
How could this happen?
How could our hearts be broken in such a brutal manner?
How could Kate Miller-Heidke not win Eurovision 2019?
My God, she did everything that could possibly be asked of her. She sang on top of a giant swaying pogo stick in a really high voice overlooking the entire universe in an emotionally-charged and banging good drama.
What's the problem?
She actually embodied the whole concept of Eurovision: very creative, a little edgy, a bit tacky, a wee bit over the top... and then she made it good. She was better than Madonna.
And the winner, what a joke. He left his costume at home, no pogo stick, nothing.
The voting system is crazy.
You can't vote for your own country. Tell me that makes sense?
We're all sitting around our living rooms chanting "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi!" and then we go,. "Yeah, let's vote for New Macedonia".
The public gets 15 minutes to vote. I mean think of that. Bjorn in Norway wants to vote for Australia, but then Ingrid says, "I didn't know Australia was in Europe." And Bjorn says, "It must be dummy, they're in Eurovision, let's Google it." That's five minutes gone already.
Face it, Australia is never going to win Eurovision. Did you notice the way the comperes kept saying "Welcome back Europe... and Australia"?
They were treating us like we didn't quite belong, like we were some island stuck down the other end of the Earth.
How can we explain ourselves? How can we claim our rightful place in Europe?
Simon Bourke is an ACM journalist
