The European Broadcasting Union has announced that Australia will take part in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time this year.
"Yes, you read that right!" wrote organizers on the Eurovision webpage on February 10, explaining that the geography-defying decision was made to add "an extra dimension" to the 60th anniversary of the popular continental song contest.
The organizers said if the Australian contestant ends up winning the finals on May 23 in the Austrian capital, Vienna, the country would take part again next year, but there is no plan to make Australia a regular contestant.
The Eurovision is hugely popular in Australia, where public broadcaster SBS has been transmitting the song contest for more than 30 years.
More than 900,000 SBS viewers watched last year, when Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst won the title in Copenhagen.
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