Sea of Flags Eurovision in Australia for over 30 years, to choose a performer and they eventually picked Mauboy. Her appearance would mark the first time Australia has been represented at Eurovision and she would become the first solo artist from a non-European Broadcasting Union country to perform as a guest. However, Mauboy is not the first Australian to perform in the contest as Olivia Newton John, The New Seekers and Gina G have previously taken part as competing acts representing the United Kingdom. Mauboy told Fairfax Media that she planned to use her Eurovision exposure as a way in to tour Europe.
Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 selected both the artist and song that represented Azerbaijan, a procedure which continued for the selection of their 2016 entry. On 29 January 2016, İTV announced that both the artist and song that would represent Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 would be selected internally. Their announcement called for interested artists and songwriters to submit their entries to the broadcaster by 10 February 2016. Eligible artists were those that were citizens of Azerbaijan or part of the Azerbaijani diaspora, while songwriters could be of any nationality. Although the selected song and artist was due to be announced on 14