Bulgaria wins the Eurovision Song Competition, Delta Goodrem delivers a stunning performance as Australia comes fourth
Updated ,first published
Vienna: Bulgaria won the 70th annual Eurovision Song Contest following a four-hour television broadcast and a week of Eurovision celebrations in Vienna, Austria, where Australia was catapulted into the center of the story. Australia’s Delta Goodrem put in a stunning performance and finished fourth in a tough competition.
In the photo-finish, Australia, Israel, France and Italy dominated the leaderboard until votes from global TV viewers were added. The final voting bloc gave victory to Bulgaria, pushing Israel into second place, Romania into third place and Australia into fourth place.
When Bulgaria is chosen as the winner with bouncy and addictive gameplay Bangaranga When Dara sang, the Wiener Stadthalle exploded with applause and cheers. In a field of 35 competing nations, Australia’s fourth-place result is still an outstanding result.
In the final, Bulgaria was at the top with 516 points, followed by Israel (343), Romania (296), Australia (287), Italy (281), Finland (279), Denmark (243), Moldova (226), Ukraine (221) and Greece (220).
The final moments of counting turned into a nail-biter as Noam Bettan put Israel ahead with a massive 220-point audience vote, and Bulgaria went home with 312-point audience votes. Five countries withdrew from the competition, protesting Israel’s participation in the wake of the war in Gaza.
Historically speaking, this is Australia’s second best ever performance. (Dami Im finished second in 2015.) And for context: More than a dozen European countries survived the grueling semifinal round and failed to advance to the grand final.
For Delta, this was a performance for the ages and a testament to Goodrem’s maturation as an artist. Already an accomplished singer-songwriter-instrumentalist, Eclipse It is the pinnacle of stagecraft: explosive, spectacular and, for the arena crowd of 16,000, simply mesmerizing.
Despite not being able to take home the gold, Goodrem still managed to make her fellow Australians proud.
Goodrem received a pat on the back from the country’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shortly after the results were announced. “Well done Delta Goodrem. You did Australia proud.” he wrote on Instagram Next to it is a photo of Goodrem in all her golden glory.
Courtney Act, who co-hosted SBS’s Eurovision broadcast this year, shared her love for Goodrem on social media shortly after her dazzling final performance. “This was very surprising. I didn’t know it could get any better than the semi-final, but Delta Goodrem somehow added another layer of shine to this delightful performance.”
At the end of the broadcast, Act said live on SBS, “Oh Australia, we are with you. We came fourth.” “I know Australians feel hope – we were feeling that hope too – so I know you’re feeling sad right now.”
Im, who represented Australia at Eurovision in 2016, also showered praise on Goodrem after her final performance, telling her Instagram followers that it was “better than half-perfection”.
Eurovision’s semi-final rounds are watched by approximately 35 to 40 million people. Like other global events like the Oscars, global TV viewership is a somewhat vague calculation based on obscure mathematical origins. Best estimates say there are over 150 million people.
Whatever the final number, it’s certainly the biggest audience of Goodrem’s professional career. What makes this account so extraordinary is that Goodrem not only captures the moment, but exceeds it in every way. A powerful fusion of acoustic and visual art, Goodrem moved as if he were light as air.
Behind the sheer folds of Sydney brand Velani’s handmade gold dress designed by Nicky Apostolopoulos – a dazzling collection of 7000 Swarovski crystals that took more than 500 hours to hand-stitch – was a piece of innovative stage technology known as the Versa Ribbon Lift; The same technology was also used by the queen of performing arts, Beyoncé.
The performance itself took Goodrem through layers of moon shadow, to the intersection of moon and sun at the center of the eclipse, and finally, after a piano intermezzo played in fortissimo with a cheeky smile, to an explosion of gold that transformed the Wiener Stadthalle arena into a shimmering ocean of fire.
Designed by Dan Shipton and Ross Nicholson, the effect was spectacular. Goodrem knew this and his confidence was clearly visible. And the audience knew it, too, and were greeted with enthusiastic applause. Even backstage at the media center, a crowd of 1,000 journalists from around the world applauded and cheered. Win or place, whatever happens now, this was a truly winning performance.
The backlash also underlined Goodrem’s months-long Eurovision love campaign, which took her from Australia to the “pre-party” season in Europe in March and April, performing at concerts in Amsterdam and Oslo and hitting the flesh with Eurovision fans.
For Australia, the Eurovision journey is as colorful as it is existential. Although it seems a natural expression of our European history and the European Broadcasting Union’s clear desire to transform Eurovision into a global brand, our place in a European music competition is always open to debate.
Goodrem’s campaign this year will momentarily silence recent critics; because some Australian contestants’ Eurovision campaigns were cut short in the semi-finals.
In this year’s first semi-final, Greece, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Moldova, Israel, Serbia, Croatia, Lithuania and Portugal participated in the final. The second was sent via Bulgaria, Ukraine, Norway, Romania, Malta, Cyprus, Albania, Denmark, Czech Republic and Australia.
In the grand final, these 20 countries faced four of the so-called “Big Five” – the largest members of the European Broadcasting Union – France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom – as well as host nation Austria, all of which automatically booked their final slots.
Spain, the fifth member of the Big Five, withdrew after the war in Gaza in protest of Israel’s involvement.
Four other countries joined the boycott: Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia, reflecting a deeply felt divide that highlighted a growing problem for the EBU: how the EBU is handling the delicate relationship between soft diplomacy and the perception that Eurovision is being used as a political proxy.
The Eurovision grand final is, at last count, a four-hour marathon of songs, stunts and abacus-style maths.
The competition’s outdated scoring system, which involves moving from the main stage in the host country to each of the participating countries and awarding scores of two to eight, 10 and 12 points to songs, is one of the best-loved aspects of the broadcast.
As an event, Eurovision is a sell-out European Idol, but in reality it has the feel of a Brownlow Medal.
Artists and songs from 35 countries performed in 20 languages at the 2026 Eurovision contest.
with Nell Geraets
SBS will replay the Eurovision grand final tonight at 7.30pm (AEST). Both the semi-final and grand final will be available to watch via SBS on Demand.
Read more of our 2026 Eurovision coverage
Michael Idato is general culture editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect with: X or email.
