Aussievision Team: Dale

Name and where you live

I'm Dale and I live in Brisbane, Queensland with my partner Mike and our two cats. I am originally from Airlie Beach, North Queensland have also lived in London and Melbourne.

Tell us a little bit about yourself

I work in the field of digital communications and marketing and outside of Eurovision I LOVE sport. I love to run and play tennis and follow my beloved North Queensland Cowboys (NRL), Richmond Tigers (AFL), Melbourne Victory and Fulham (Football).

Other passions are trivia, politics, travelling and country music. Some bucket list items I've done: run a marathon, competed in the Gay Games and gone to all four tennis grand slams. Though I still want to tick off the Olympics, a World Cup and tornado chasing.

What is your Eurovision journey?

I first heard about the Contest when Australia's own Gina G performed for the UK in 1996. I couldn't get SBS where I lived but remember waiting to hear the news about how she went.... which was the first of many Eurovision heartbreaks!

After finally watching the Contest in uni, I really got into it properly in the 2000s when I lived in London including a misguided love of Scooch. Then on my return to Australia my passion continued with the well known getting up at 5:00am to watch ritual.

After going to the contest in 2016, my interest then went from a "once-a-year" fan to "crazy" fan. National finals, joining OGAE Australia, watching the history of Eurovision and starting a Eurovision podcast level of crazy. It has taken over my life for the better!

Do you have any affinity to nations other than Australia?

I do feel attached to the UK from my time there and my Welsh heritage. My winners for the last few years have either been Swedish or Italian but I do love anything Moldovan that involves a brass instrument. Estonia and Albania are also up there.

Any Aussievision highlights?

On a personal level doing a couple of videos with Queen of Australia, Dami Im was pretty amazing! And also, all the work we get to do together as a team - coverage of Australia Decides on the ground, late night reviews of Eurovision rehearsal week and ESC250 all nighters plus the rare time we all get to meet in person for a drink or two!

Quick questions on Eurovision entries

Best winner:

Ein Bisschen Frieden (Germany 1982) and recently Zitti e buoni (Italy 2021)

Favourite three non-Australian entries:

You Are the Only One (Russia 2016), Fai rumore (Italy 2020) and Undo (Sweden 2014).

Favourite Australian entry:

Live: Sound of Silence, Studio: We Got Love, Staging: Zero Gravity

Favourites from the last century:

Femme Dans Ses Rêves Aussi (France 1985), En Dag (Sweden 1989), Where Are You Now (UK 1998), Nacida par amar (Spain 1989). What can I say? I love 80s Eurovision!

Robberies:

Other than the obvious Australian one, Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein from Joy Fleming for Germany finishing 17th in 1975 is the most head-scratching result of all time.

Makes you dance:

La Venda (Spain 2019), Fuego (Cyprus 2018), I'm Never Giving Up (UK 1983) and Shady Lady (Ukraine 2008) are all guaranteed to get me off my feet.

Guilty pleasure:

Moustache (2014), Something (Lithuania 2013) and Falling Stars (Moldova 2016). People say there are no such things as guilty pleasures, but there is something wonderfully shameful about at least one of these.

Favourite non-qualifier:

Verona (Estonia 2017), Quero ser tua (Portugal 2014) and Mizerja (Croatia 2013).

Favourite Eurovision year:

2015 - Amazing songs and Australia's debut.

1993 - Held in an Irish village with immense historical significance (war in the Balkans) and cracking songs.

1983 - Fantastic year for songs despite me not being a fan of the winner

1969 - Not just the historic tie, every entry is top notch.

Favourite national finals:

Sanremo (Italy), Festivali i Kenges (Albania), Eesti Laul (Estonia) and of course Melfest (Sweden) and Aus Decides.

Favourite national final songs:

Save Me (Sweden 2016), En värld full av strider (Sweden 2017), Ok ou Ko (France 2018), Voce (Italy 2021), Ciao Ciao (Italy 2022). I could list 100.

Any final comments?

I love the passion of the Aussie fans! So many of us get up incredibly early in the morning for months of the national finals and then the Contest itself. Many also spend copious amounts of money to travel to the other side of the world to attend Eurovision week. An absolute highlight in recent years has been Eurovision - Australia Decides, a chance for Aussies to watch some "Eurovision" at a normal time of day and connect with thousands of fellow fans. I hope it continues for years to come!