Delta GoodremDelta Goodrem’s visit to Vienna to perform Eclipse at the Eurovision (May 12 to 16) will be financially supported by the Australian Government, it was announced late last week.
It is part of The International Cultural Diplomacy Arts Fund (ICDAF) from the Dept. of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and The Arts.
It’s not the first time that ICDAF has helped Australia’s quest for Eurovision glory.
Minister for the Arts Tony Burke said, “Eurovision uses geo-blocking to prevent anyone from voting in their own country for their own artist, but that doesn’t mean we can’t help.
“Any Australian who’s travelling or has the phone number of anyone else in any other country, you know what to do.”
The ICDAF “provides funding for unique and diverse Australian talent to showcase their work on a global scale,” said the Dept’s website.
Goodrem was one of seven projects announced last week that shared in $700,000.
The others were pretty highbrow. BlakDance Australia is heading to the UK, Monkey Baa Theatre Company to China, Spare Parts Puppet Theatre to Hong Kong, Stephanie Lake Company to France, the Performing Arts Connections Australia to deliver the Australian Performing Arts Market 2026 in in Perth, and Creative Australia to hold an exhibition in Italy.
Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter
It’s not known how much Goodrem received. But as a comparison, Electric Fields got $50,000 in 2024. Go Jo in 2025 got funds from CDAF and Music Australia.
Kate Miller-Heidke didn’t get any direct Government funding for her 2019 attempt in Tel Aviv.
But she used the Australian Cultural Fund platform operated by Creative Australia to crowdfund $61,186. Each contribution was matched by the Dept. of Communications and the Arts and Creative Partnerships Australia.
Miller-Heidke, when announcing the crowd-funding, quipped, “This money comes with a caveat similar to the one my Mum gave me at age 11 when I wanted her to buy me a piano – every dollar I raise will be matched with a dollar by the DCA and CPA, and it needs to be raised from the public (or in the case of my piano, delivering the Westside News around the suburbs of Brisbane).”
Reports were that SBS, Blink TV, EMI Records, and her management also chipped in.
Standing on the Eurovision stage was a “five year dream come true” but Miller-Heidke’s ambitious three-minute performance of Zero Gravity was, she admitted, “an expensive one (somewhere north of 5 figures and south of 7).”
But her appearance, in a flowing dress designed by Sydney couture designer Steven Khalil, was stunning.
It included two members of Melbourne-based globally acknowledged performance arts group Strange Fruit (“who are staggering physical virtuosos” she said) with whom Miller-Heidke performed high above the stage on bendy acrobatic poles.
The cost of the visit rose with the addition of Strange Fruit and the inventive staging.
High-scale production has been something that Australian entrants have learned.
Despite a flawless note-perfect performance from Jessica Mauboy during her second Eurovision performance in Lisbon in 2018 (she was earlier a guest act during halftime in Denmark in 2014) she was marked a low 20th.
Reason: in an event that celebrated kitsch, colour, constant movement and sonic mayhem, Mauboy appeared solo without dancers and with relatively subdued lighting and production.
The funding Perth symphonic metal band Voyager received from the WA Government through the Contemporary Music Fund and Tourism WA to get to Liverpool in 2023 was the most creative.
It included the video for their entry Promise which played on the Eurovision YouTube channel which reached 369.5 million viewers.
The video saw them pose at picturesque places including the pink lakes of Hutt Lagoon against a pink sky and red and white banded rocks in Natures Window in Kalbarri.
There was also a $300,000 campaign declaring "Western Australia — It's Like No Other.” It was more than just inviting people to visit WA: it was also making WA attractive to skilled foreign workers which was suffering job shortages.
WA Tourism Minister Roger Cook revealed at the time that Tourism WA worked with the band on the video.
"Coming out of COVID people are looking for unique iconic locations, clean environments, safe communities, and really want to have an experience as part of their tourism adventures, so Western Australia is well placed to take advantage of this new global drive.
"Opportunities such as Eurovision to put it front and centre of one of the most watched cultural entertainment events around the world is really an opportunity which is absolute gold."
The campaign was aimed at viewers both internationally and on the Australian East Coast.
How many people did it have the potential to reach? In 2025, Eurovision’s staging in Basel, in Switzerland, had a televised audience of 166 million viewers in 37 European markets – up by 3 million from the previous year.
The 15-24 age group had a record 60.4% share of the audience. The three biggest markets were Germany, Poland and France.
The contest also saw unprecedented digital engagement, with TikTok at 748.5 million views and Instagram generating 969 million views.
In Australia, 450,000 tuned through the whole week. SBS reported that for the Grand Final 284,000 stayed up in the early hours for the live broadcast from Europe, while 169,000 tuned in for the evening repeat.
Eurovision Economics
It can cost host cities upwards of AU$50 million to stage the event. The 37 broadcasters taking part in Eurovision all pay a fee to enter, which in recent years has totalled a combined sum of about £5 million ($9.40 million).
But the resulting tourism spend more than makes up for the investment. However, there have been examples where the host broadcaster can go in the red.
Basel spent 34.96 million Swiss francs ($54.5 million) in hosting Eurovision last year. 66.6% of voters agreed with that investment.
Basel, on the River Rhine, Basel is right on the border with France and Germany. So it was no surprise that it drew 500,000 visitors during Eurovision. That generated a total of 248 million Swiss francs ($440.1 million) in revenue across Switzerland and brought 53 million francs ($94 million) in added value to the Basel region alone.
In terms of tourism, 92% of visitors had a positive impression of Basel as a leisure destination. 95% said they would recommend Basel, and 85% will visit again in coming years.
Malmö in Sweden hosted Eurovision in 2024 and 2013.
In 2013, 100,000 people (Swedes and foreigners) flocked to the city for the event.
They spent €33 million ($53.6 million), or €330 ($536) per person. That year it cost the city €28 million ($45.5 million) to put on the show, ending with €5 million ($8/13 million) in profit.
Moscow paid close to $58 million in 2009, Dusseldorf $41.3 million in 2011, and Copenhagen $74.5 million in 2014.
In 2023, when Liverpool took on hosting duties on behalf of war-torn Ukraine, it was looking at a bill of $41.3 million. Between $13.8 million and $28.9 million had to be borne by the BBC, as broadcasting host.
The UK Government gave £10 million ($18.8 million) and local councils tipped in £4 million ($7.52 million). The rest came from ticket sales, sponsorship deals, supporting gigs and revenues from online platforms
The Government’s funding included for security, making sure it "showcases Ukrainian culture", and for 3,000 tickets to be given to Ukrainians living in the UK.
The BBC having to spend between £8 million ($15 million) and £17 million ($31.9 million) came at a time when it was swinging the axe on head count and channel numbers.
But a report a year later by Liverpool City Region found that hosting Eurovision had brought many tourism benefits to the city.
Twelve months later, 72, 454 of those who visited for Eurovision, came, and pumped £11.1 million ($20.8 million). This is in addition to the £54.8 million ($103 million) generated during the event itself. The event delivered an estimated £4.6 million ($8.65 million) in cultural benefits to domestic attendees.
The City shone as 162 million viewers tuned in.
The report proclaimed, “Eurovision cemented Liverpool’s status as a global cultural powerhouse… (and) Liverpool ranks in the top 10 most recognised non-capital cities globally.”
It stated: “The Eurovision effect has only strengthened that status, elevating the city’s brand on the international stage and proving that Liverpool continues to punch well above its weight when it comes to cultural influence.”
As a result of the global spotlight Eurovision put on Liverpool, the number of tourists visiting the city saw record-breaking visitor numbers in 2023 and a £6.25 billion ($11.7 billion) tourism economy—£600 million ($1.128 billion) above projected figures.
RTP, Portugal’s public service broadcaster, reportedly lost €4 million ($6.5 million) when the event was hosted in Lisbon in 2018. It cost €20 million ($32.5 million) to stage but ticket sales, ad revenue and sponsorship brought in €16 million ($26 million).
Ireland’s broadcaster RTE spent £250,000 in 1971 (about $2.4 million today). Writing for RTÉ in 2021, researcher Morgan Wait said it was “declared a resounding success” but still “led to cuts in nearly every department and a cavalcade of programme cancellations”.
Australian broadcaster SBS started broadcasting in 1983. It wasn’t until 2015 when rules were changed and Australia was allowed to compete. It was initially as a one-off only.
When Guy Sebastian became the first Australian-based act to compete that year, the cost of getting him and his entourage there (he took fifth place) was taken by his record company, Sony Music, emphasised SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid told a Senate Estimates Committee. But it sent five staff and paid a fee to screen the event.
It also paid a substantial number (not revealed) to ensure that Sebastian went straight in the final round along with entrants from France, Britain, Spain and Italy,
A report in the Sydney Morning Herald noted that such an investment paid off in high ratings, that year around 1 million, which would attract more advertisers.
With Australia now represented in Eurovision, in its first year four brands – Renault cars, Harvey Norman retailer, AHM health insurance, and Bingle car insurance – signed on.
Around that time when SBS made a bid for Federal Parliament to allow it to expand from six minutes to 10 minutes of advertising in prime time, it estimated it would earn $28.5 million in additional revenue over the next four years.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
