Australia is hoping that the first Asia Pacific Song Contest will air in March 2017. Paul Clarke said this in the ESC Daily Show, adding that he thinks that Australia can also still compete at the Eurovision Song Contest.
“We want to build a bridge of the best and biggest and oldest music competition, to the world biggest music market,” the Head of Delegation of Australia explains about the renewed plans for an Asian version of the contest. “There are 900 million people watching through their phones in India and China.”
There will not be a lot of changed when we will compare the Asia Pacific Song Contest to Eurovision: “The show will be almost exact. But we will only have a Grand Final. Eurovision started with 9 countries, we are aiming for 12. The funny thing with the Zeitgeist is that many countries are having the same idea, and we are now talking to these nations, stating we have the perfect format.”
As stated above, the coming of this new contest does not mean that Australia has plans to leave Eurovision. They want to stay, even if they have their own contest. “This is the best musicial party in the world. Any time we will be invited, we will be here. It is such a special thing for us. We obviously want to be a part of it, perhaps we can be part of Eurovision growing in to a globan thing, but we never want to lose its specialness. We can only assume we will be invited again next year, but we can only do our best and try not to spoil the party.”