‘This could be a winner’: Delta Goodrem’s Eurovision campaign wows Norway

Australian singer Delta Goodrem has kicked off her campaign for next month’s Eurovision Song Contest with a weekend gig in Norway that drew rave notices from fans, who hailed her as “the goddess of this Eurovision season”.

The Nordic Eurovision Party, held in Oslo is one of a handful of key pre-Eurovision events. The competition’s participating countries are notoriously consistent, voting in political and ethnic blocs, meaning the pre-parties are vital for generating buzz with fans.

Henrik Larsson, a popular Eurovision YouTuber, described Goodrem as “the goddess of this Eurovision season, the queen of vocals” after her performance. Another key YouTuber, vocal coach Georgina Hall-Brown, said: “This could be a winner; vocals are superb.”

Sebastian Diaz, from the influential blog Wiwibloggs, described meeting Goodrem as “a fever dream”. Goodrem also won a ringing endorsement from Australia’s most successful past Eurovision entrant, Dami Im, who came second in 2016. “If anyone can get gold for Australia, it’s Delta,” Im said.

In addition to the party performance, Goodrem appeared on Norwegian breakfast TV program God Morgen Norge (Good Morning Norway), performing Eclipse – the song she is taking to Eurovision – accompanied by her husband, Matthew Copley, on guitar.

Goodrem was always a shrewd choice to represent Australia: a strong vocalist and accomplished songwriter/musician with profile in Europe. But off the back of her performance at the weekend, Australia is now firmly in the top five contenders, behind Finland, France, Denmark and Greece.

A record 17 artists turned up for the Oslo event, which suggests more Eurovision competitors are engaging in longer pre-competition campaigns to shore up their numbers.

Pre-competition events such as Oslo offer them clearer air than they get when Eurovision begins in earnest in May; the Eurovision main stage – this year, the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria – will get crowded with 35 competing countries this year.

There are two remaining key pre-Eurovision fixtures: Eurovision in Concert, in Amsterdam, on April 11, and the London Eurovision Party on April 19.

A third event, in Madrid, was cancelled after Spain withdrew from this year’s competition, in protest at the inclusion of Israel. The Netherlands has also withdrawn from the 2026 contest, but Dutch organisers let the Eurovision in Concert event proceed.

The pre-competition window is something of a beta-testing phase for both artist and song because neither is under enormous scrutiny. Eurovision fans are not slow to express their approval, but they rarely cut artists down at this point, given the sometimes rickety sound and staging of pre-competition events.

The week before the competition, in early May, is when the nuts and bolts of the staging are locked down, when the artists get their first access to the competition venue.

On wide polling, five countries are dominating discussion: Finland, France, Denmark, Greece and Australia. Finland has already been tagged as a likely winner, and France is widely seen as the major threat to Finland.

But as Larsson broke it down, Australia and France will probably be the top scorers with the professional juries, off the back of Goodrem’s stunning performance in Oslo, which means the pre-competition window offers a vital opportunity to drum up engagement with TV-voting fans. Securing both the jury and TV audience vote is critical to winning.

Five countries are not participating this year – Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain – as a protest over the inclusion of Israel, and allegations that Israel had attempted to sway the outcome in 2024 and 2025 via paid ad campaigns.

Despite the accusation, Eurovision’s organising body, the European Broadcasting Union, said the 2025 voting had been verified to “exclude any suspicious or irregular voting patterns”.

This year’s boycott is the most substantial since 1970, when Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden withdrew, frustrated with a four-way win the preceding year and accusing the competition of marginalising smaller countries.

Speaking to this masthead on the eve of her confirmation as Australia’s 2026 Eurovision entry, Goodrem likened the journey to an Olympic athlete’s journey to the stadium. “You’re an athlete at the end of the day,” she said. And – critically – she is in it to win it. “I’m there representing Australia. I have a very patriotic heart. I’ll do my absolute best.”

This year marks the 11th anniversary of Australia’s entry into Eurovision as a competitor, and a return to the stage where it began. It was at the Wiener Stadthalle in 2015 where Guy Sebastian performed Tonight Again. Despite Australia being a newcomer, Sebastian’s performance placed Australia fifth in a field of 40 competing countries.

The Eurovision Song Contest will be televised live and in prime time, May 13-17, on SBS and SBS On Demand.