Australia at Eurovision
How Guy Sebastian’s song represents the 'do what you want' country…
This weekend the Eurovision Song Contest is being held in Vienna. As part of the celebration of 60 years of Eurovision, my home country of Australia has been invited to compete as a ‘once off special’ in the finals.
So, as a nation we have entered Guy Sebastian and his specially written song Tonight Again. It's worth a listen, I think it's a pretty cool track (with some nice horn lines). What I want to do in this article is pick up on some of the lyrics and show how I think the song represents Australia well, in all its freedom and faults. Given Australia is a big place and very multicultural I will have to generalise, but I think there are some overriding ideas caught up in this song.
The first lyric, from the chorus, is:
“Tonight’s so good. Forget tomorrow. We can do tonight again”
This captures the vibe of the whole song. I’m sure everyone can remember times when we have been out with friends and not wanted the night to end. One of the awesome things about Aussies is we are generally laid back and know how to have a good time. Whether we are on the beach, in the bush or somewhere in between we are blessed to live in a wonderful part of the world. What this lyric captures is how we live in a place where we have such luxury to enjoy good food and good times, sometimes we just want the night to go on forever. Plus you can see how Guy might be feeling excited about the massive party night at Eurovision.
The second line repeated throughout is:
“Do what you want, Do what you want”
This second lyric picks up on the great freedom we have in Australia, most people can do what they want. Get a job, buy a new phone, change jobs, date someone, go to the movies, drive through McDonalds, buy new clothes, do what you want, when you want. You can easily take for granted the amazing freedom we have to just do whatever suits you.
However, we also have this same attitude to God – we do what we want instead of what God wants. We often think that we know better than God. So we go on living our lives as though we are in control, just doing what feels right. This attitude seems to work out fine, until we are faced with tragedy or disaster that we have no control over. Instead of doing what we want, as Aussies, we need to turn back to God because he always does what is best for us. He created us, he knows the best way for us to live, so turn repent and believe in him.
The final lyric to look at is from the second verse:
“They say we only live for fun. They may be right but only maybe. But I can guarantee what we got is what they want”
This is the most obvious moment where Guy speaks to our culture. He admits that maybe he and others just live for fun. What he is exposing is the purpose people have (or don’t have) in life. There are certainly some who live for fun, others who live for pleasure, others who live for money, some who live for family and some who live for other things. Yet at the heart of it, people are worshipping created things instead of the creator (Romans 1:25). Despite this, as Guy correctly points out, this is what people want. We spend our whole lives searching for meaning in the things listed above, trying to find satisfaction.
As Christians, we know that true meaning and purpose can only be found in Christ. Total satisfaction will not come in anything other the than our Lord and Saviour, because we are made by him and for him (Colossians 1:16).
So, if you're Aussie like me, as you get pumped to watch our country compete for the very first time at Eurovision listen to what is being sung. Maybe even consider what each song says about their country?
I'll still be cheering for Australia and hoping Guy can win the grand final!
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