Which, first of all, should clearly be called Asiavision [edit: apparently the trademark is taken... Bugger.]
Being newer to the community I don't have the deep lore of Eurovision as some of you, but I do have a view on history. So I'd love to hear from the Eurovision history buffs.
I think Australians have a different view of what "the Eurovision" is compared to what Europeans do: which is that we see it exclusively as a soft-power tool for liberal democratic nations to spread their values. Maybe it is simply that today. But in the early inception of the contest, was it really so simple as "west vs east"? It doesn't seem so.
WWII and the Cold War from Australia's point of view was essentially just a drawn-out conflict between good vs evil. That's just how most Australians see it. But for you Europeans, it was obviously a lot more complex and nuanced. Heavy-handed intranational diplomatic and sometimes violent disputes between Balkans or Baltics or even other central and western European nations meant there wasn't just a "liberal vs tyrannical" contest, there was a lot of contention of how the post-war new world order should between vast minority groups, and how ideas common people should be treated, which rights were fundamental. Post-war Europe was splintered and factionalised and people were taught to distrust each other to survive. The purpose of Eurovision was to smash right through that mould by saying "music is something everyone can enjoy, so why don't we just focus on that for a while?" Although we're happy to take part, Australia does not need this social medicine. It's vanity for us. Which is fun, but not really "the Eurovision".
That's not to downplay the fact was it still was, by definition, a stage for soft-power. But if you compare just the cultural relations between countries across Europe then versus now, Eurovision has clearly been one of the forces that actually worked to change individual peoples perceptions, one at a time, about those they might have seen as an enemy. Obviously not like it was all Eurovision's doing, but it clearly played a role and served that function.
So I want to encourage Australians to go back to the original purpose of Eurovision. Australia did not have all of these complex relationships with any European nation even remotely - we pretty much adore all of you. But we do have complex and tragic histories with our Asian and Southeast Asian neighbours from that war. We were the other Eastern front. Australia helped serve some smaller nations, and seriously damaged some others without reparation. We're at a time when we're trying to rebuild those partnerships, with countries like Indonesia and Papua New Guinea - budding democracies with a distrust of each other - that seem ideologically enigmatic to us - that seems to me to be what Eurovision sought to overcome. We can't solve all our problems in one night or in one summit or in one trade deal, but if we keep it simple, that all humans enjoy music and dancing, the song contest has shown it is a way to build bridges and deeper connections with enough time and effort.
The actual music, thirdly, to many of you the most important point. Remember, just by pure geography, we have way more Asian/SEA migrants in Australia (before we were even a country) as a portion of our population compared to anywhere else in the west. We already have artists who have succeeded and are growing in this Australasian multicultural space. Astronomy Class, a Cambodian/Australian hip-hop fusion, Australian-born Chinese Opera Drag Queen Dyan Tai, an experimental Indian-prog group headed by Australian-born Rajan Silva (Glass Beams). I could go on. We have exactly the disapora and the mindset we need to succeed not just musically, but in building those new permanent bridges.
Lastly, people might think that Eurovision is a great opportunity to promote Aussie artists internationally, and that we'd lose that if we went to compete in Asia, because the event is smaller. Having enjoyed a lot of Asian music myself, in my opionion, a lot of Asia's entertainment industry is in pretty much the same place that the West's was in the 2010's. Reality song contests in Asia are putting out some of the world's best vocalists, Big TV ensemble performances are becoming more common, with blossoming parasocial fan followings, just as we love. Asian broadcasters in China are headhunting Australian artists to perform in China, and they are also in return bringing Chinese theatre and even Chinese buskers to perform in Melbourne -- in other words, a massive international TV song contest is exactly the type of thing today's Asian music scene is perfectly geared for. I personally predict that Asiavision's budget will surpass Europe's within its first 10 years of operating, with or without Australia's participation. I think we should participate in that.
Remember, if we win, that would be an event we're actually allowed to host locally, same timezone and all! And we would put on a bigger event half-assing it in Sydney than we possibly could trying as hard as we can to manage all the logistics of staging in Berlin.
I'll finish this off with a few Asian songs that show you what kind of contest we could enjoy, depending on your preferred genre. I don't know for certain if Asiavision is really set to be the next big thing, but all of the right ingredients are clearly there: if you're the kind of person who heard Australia had the option to compete in Asiavision and you thought "nah, we should compete in Eurovision because we're more European" - I hope this post changes your mind, or at least helps you to see that there is real opportunity here. And good music.
1) Indonesia's Voice of Baceprot - God, Allow Me (Please) To Play Music (Girl Power Metal Band)
2) China's Howie Lee - Mantra of Guru Riponche (Throat singing Tibetan Hardstyle)
3) Laos' Thinlamphone - Sound of Laos (Laos Ethnopop... L-Pop?)
4) Bhutan's Ridgen Namgyal - Karsel Dawa (Contemporary Folk-Pop)
5) Phillippines' Gigi de Lana - Bakit Nga Ba Mahal Kita (Tagalog Power Ballad)
