The Australian act and song was revealed on February 21th as a premier of the official music video via the Eurovision Song Contest youtube channel. Representing Australia this year is the rock band Voyager with the song "Promise".
Voyager is a five-piece rock band who formed in Perth in 1999 and their current line up consists of Alex Canion, Ashley Doodkorte, Simone Dow, Daniel Estrin and Scott Kay. The band released their first album in 2003 and have currently seven albums under their belt. Although they have had plenty of success in their native Australia, most of their albums have had European releases. They have also frequented festivals been support slots in Finland, Netherlands, Germany and the UK. The band first came to light in Eurovision spheres when they took part on the 2022 edition of "Eurovision – Australia Decides". They were one of the pre-favourites and eventually came a close second but did win the public televote.
The song begins with a strobing synth bassline. This continues under the first verse and lead into the pre-chorus. The synthy-ness is more ethereal during this part and acts like a buffer and springboard between the verse and the much more rock infused chorus which is short but catchy and sharp. Verse two into the pre-chorus has much more full backing but is much shorter and the run into the chorus is noticeably truncated. There there is a notable pause and drop where a slow but heavy instrumental comes in leading into an elongated pre-chorus with some extra instrumentation in the backing. The final chorus is slightly broken up by more instrumental parts this time of a synth nature and feeling more akin to 70s prog rock before the shouty end.
I have to admit this took some time to actually catch my ear. There is SO much going on in this song and so full of bits and pieces there is a lot to take on board. However this song made so such more sense listening through headphones and I am hoping with better sound production and live vocals there will be more variety on the levels when performed live. There is also a lot of lyric repetition, not just in the chorus, and I quite like this especially as a lot of it feels like the singer addressing the audience/listener directly which gives it some urgency. They also feel like a very tight band and I think they should have a good setup and stage idea for the song. Personally I find the video a bit disjointed and didn't really portray the song's message.
This is a very distinct genre (which is good) but it is not a very Eurovision-y genre and so it's rather up in the air as to how this is going to go. I feel like the rock people will like this and I feel that many will appreciate the artistry and the unusual nature of the song. Looking at their semi, there is nothing vaguely like this (as I write) , possibly the nearest comparable song would be Slovenia's. This will stand out and will make a real point. The problem is - is it too different, too confusing and too hard to comprehend on one listen? And will anyone actually vote for this? I actually feel like the 100% televote may be of detriment to them as musicologists, producers and musicians of this genre would probably be at the top of the list for giving this much needed points. Although this is not really my style or normal listening material I hope this does get through because it has real substance and the band has got the style. The final would be a less interesting place without them.
ARTIST - Voyager
SONG - Promise
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - A Canion, Paul Clarke, A Doodkorte, S Dow, D Estrin, S Kay, Matt Templeman
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