Australia’s Dami Im has blitzed through to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest after delivering all the passion, sequins, lighting and hand actions you’d expect of a great Eurovision performance.
See you in the #Eurovision final! Thank you to everyone who voted, can’t believe the support!! ?? #DamiArmy pic.twitter.com/jgHih3bwXM
— Dami Im (@damiandmusic) May 12, 2016
Im became the second Australian to compete in the contest, with her song Sound of Silence, following Guy Sebastian’s debut entry in 2015. Sebastian was given a wild card into the final last year, making Im now the first Australian to officially qualify.
So does Im have a chance of doing one better than Sebastian’s fifth spot in 2015, and taking us into the top three – or even into winner’s territory?
Well according to betting agency SportsBet, she has an excellent chance of taking the second spot.
We put the question to our resident Eurovision expert Nicklas Wikblad, who hails from Sweden, is an expert in Eurovision analysis, and has watched the contest every year since 1995.
He says Im’s voice is what’s driving her current popularity and the fact she has such a great chance of taking out a top five spot over the weekend. She’s got the full package.
“Im’s voice goes so well with the song and she gets to show it off here in this performance,” he says. “It’s a great package deal of voice and song.
“That will give her an advantage in the competition as Eurovision is all about the full package of artist, voice, song, performance and the staging of it. Everything has to speak to and with everything else.
“Her act is very down scaled to be a Eurovision act but she’s got the great song and again, her great voice.”
Im came to prominence in Australia after winning the fifth season of The X Factor Australia. The 27-year-old emigrated to Australia from Korea when she was nine.
Watch Im perform Sound of Silence below.