AUSTRALIA

The Australian Final was held on February 9th at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, hosted by Myf Warhurst & Joel Creasey. The winner, chosen by a 50-50 mixture of televoting and jury scoring was “Zero Gravity” by Kate Miller-Heidke.

Kate’s song and staging, on the face of it, is reminiscent of Elina’s Estonian entry last year but there are some very distinct differences. Kate’s dress is much more textured and intricate with a radiating crystal crown on hear head. Behind her and above her no less is an acrobat on a bendy pole. She mirrors some of the armography of Kate as well as mirrors the growth of the song by moving more and more as it goes along. They even interact with each other, which looks amazing. The background starts off quite blue but as the song progresses blobs of different colours start to expand so that by the end build up the whole place is vibrant pinks, greens and blues.

The song is quite hard to pigeonhole because the song and the singer seems to change genres and styles very quickly. It starts off as a almost whispery trance song with Kate explaining how she is being dragged down by the people around her. This then goes into operatic mode where she shows off her trilling a expert breath control in the chorus. The backing track goes from being low-key and electronic to being orchestral and atmospheric. This pattern is repeated again but with a much stronger beat pulse in the verse. After the second chorus the song begins it’s long build up to the ending. The backing singers sing the “nothing holding me down” line over and over again almost like an affirmation mantra whilst Kate keeps singing her ‘zero gravity’ trilling. The whole effect with the music, the acrobat and the lights really builds up to a momentous finale.

Australia’s very first national final was absolutely epic. The songs were diverse, well produced, showed great creativity but also felt very current and modern (take heed BBC!) The two pre-show favourites ended up being the top two on the night and in fact the jury and televote for Kate and Electric Fields (who came second) really was close and I honestly think ether of them would have been worthy winners. This is going to stand out a country mile. It’s like Bohemian Rhapsody on speed – especially if you need to get all facets of  the song under 3 minutes! Her voice is really listenable, the lyrics are actually quite meaningful and the tune is a low-key bop AND a hand-up lighters anthem all in one. The staging as it is, is exceptional and the song is very memorable.

Will anybody vote for this? Well I guess it depends if it unites opera, dance music, and anthem fans or alienates them. However, I feel that juries will lap this up just for the amazing vocal technique and the very skilful song writing shown inside the time limit. How to do a national final *ticked*

ARTIST – Kate Miller-Heidke

SONG – Zero gravity

MUSIC -  Kate Miller-Heidke, Keir Nuttall

LYRICS - Kate Miller-Heidke, Keir Nuttall