Alfie Arcuri to represent Australia at The Golden Stag Festival

Overnight it's been announced that Eurovision: Australian Decides singer Alfie Arcuri will represent Australia at 'The Golden Stag Festival' in August.

Held in Romania, The Golden Stag Festival dates back to 1968 and is one of the largest international song competitions outside of Eurovision. It contains a competitive component with singers representing their nation as well as general performances.

Last year's winner was Albanian Inis Neziri who many will remember from the Albanian National Final in late 2017 (for the 2018 Eurovision contest). It's a huge festival with many big names previously performing including Nicole Scherzinger, P!nk, Kylie Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia, Sheryl Crow, Diana Ross and Tom Jones to name just a few.

Australia Alfie Arcuri competed at Australia Decides with his song 'To Myself' and placed 5th behind winner Kate Miller-Heidke. It was this performance that caught the eye of the organisers and got him an invite,

"I was approached a couple of weeks ago, they found me on the recent Eurovision: Australia Decides telecast, they must have like what they saw!", Alfie told us.

"I am so excited, I feel so fortunate not only to be able to perform on that stage but also to hopefully do my country proud."

Alfie doesn't know which song he will be singing yet telling us that he's "anxiously waiting to find out" and that "it'll be either 'To Myself' or 'Same'".

'Same' is a recent single of Alfie's which he tells us was in the pipeline for some time,

"It was actually set for release at the end of last year but then the Eurovision opportunity happened, so I'm glad to finally have it out. I'm also very excited to release the acoustic version of the track in the next few weeks".

Alfie obviously sees The Golden Stag as a great opportunity but he still has his eye on that other European competition,

"I don't think my work is done just yet with Eurovision, I would love to represent Australia on that stage"

He's also just excited to get over to Europe for the trip,

"I have actually never been to Europe so I'm very excited. I may even squeeze in a little trip to Italy before hand".

The Golden Stag Festival takes place in Brasov, Romania from the 22-24 August and includes the following competitors with some familiar Eurovision and National Final names.

• Alfie Arcuri (Australia National Final 2019)

• Anna Odobescu (Moldova, Eurovision 2019)

• Cynthia Verazie (Cyprus)

• Eliza G (Italy)

• Florin Raduta (Romania)

• Monika Marija (Lithuania National Final 2019)

• Ralfs Eilands (Latvia)

• Renate (Romania)

• Sara de Blue (Austria, San Marino National Final 2018)

• Syuzanna Melqonyan (Armenia National Final 2017)

• Tamara (Georgia, Eurovision 2017)

• Veronica Liberati (Italy)

We will bring you more details closer to the event.