It is, of course, as observed by Graham Norton, “a nonsense”. But then this is the Eurovision Song Contest, so who was expecting anything else?

On Saturday night in Vienna, performers from 27 European countries will square up for the continent’s annual carnival of kitsch national stereotypes, caterwauling balladeers, fist-pumping bombast and mildly shocking gender ambiguity. Several of those European countries will have identifiable geographical, political or cultural connections to Europe. One of them will be Australia.

The concept of “European” in its song contest sense has, of course, been elastic for some years, with the inclusion of not-European Israel in 1970, not-really-European Azerbaijan in 2008 and not-in-any-sense-European Morocco in 1980.

This year, however, to mark the contest’s 60th anniversary and a theme, according to its organisers of “building bridges”, the continent’s geographical borders have been stretched 15,000km to the south-east, all the way to Adelaide, home of Australia’s contestant Guy Sebastian.

“At the very heart of the Eurovision Song Contest is the importance of bringing countries together to celebrate diversity, music and culture,” said Jon Ola Sand of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the competition’s organiser, ignoring those who might have considered that, at its very heart, the contest had something to do with Europe.

It would be “remiss”, Sand continued when announcing the lineup in March, to “throw the world’s biggest party” without including “the show’s Australian friends”. Eurovision has been screened in Australia for three decades by the public broadcaster SBS, its exuberant high campery earning it a dedicated antipodean fan base (and 3 million TV viewers last year).

This is, insists the EBU, a one-off invitation – that is, unless Australia wins, in which case it can come back next year. Were that to happen, however, Australia would not be permitted to host the contest. Instead, in that event, SBS could “co-host” the contest in a European city to be chosen at a later date.

It was this aspect – along with all the other aspects of Australia competing in a European competition – to which Norton was referring when he told reporters at the Bafta television awards earlier this month that he “didn’t understand” why the country had been included.

“It’s a nonsense,” said the comedian, who has presented the British coverage of the contest since 2008. “The one thing the contest doesn’t need is another song.”

In that, indeed, he certainly had a point. No fewer than 39 countries now participate in Eurovision, following the introduction in 2004 of semi-final rounds that earlier this week saw the elimination of Ireland – the most successful nation in the event’s history with seven winners – along with fellow Euro-duds Iceland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Malta, Portugal and San Marino.

Britain, of course, doesn’t have to qualify, as one of the “big five” nations – alongside France, Germany, Spain and Italy – whose financial contribution to the EBU makes their presence at the event’s grand finale assured. Happily, this blatant favouritism makes absolutely no difference to the final result, with the UK having recorded three last-place finishes in the past 12 years, its most recent five placings being 25th, 11th, 25th, 19th and 17th. (Jemini’s 2003 entry Cry Baby remains, to date, the only British song to achieve the coveted “nul points” final placing, though this year’s British representatives, Electro Velvet, may have something to say about that.)

So, how should we rate the chances of our new European neighbours? At first glance Australia appears to have made a classic rookie error in submitting a song that is not actually that terrible, in Sebastian’s upbeat pop-funk number Tonight Again. The singer – who won Australian Idol in 2003 – knocked out the song in a few days specially for the contest, after wisely opting not to sing a ballad from his album Madness (“predominantly dull-bordering-on-awful” – the Guardian).

In terms of his performance, too, he is promising something “colourful and classy”, which is surely not the point at all. Bookmakers have nonetheless made him fourth favourite for the title, behind Russia, Italy and current hot tip, Sweden.

If the bookies are right and Australia fails to win, the contest organisers continue to insist that Europe will revert, more or less, to its current borders next year. And yet, the participation of an enthusiastic and lucrative new audience in the southern hemisphere may yet prove irresistible.

As the event’s organisers put it: “Throughout its 60 years of development, new elements have been introduced to keep the Eurovision Song Contest exciting, surprising and relevant to the spirit of time. Who knows what the future will bring, as excitement about this European tradition spreads to other countries around the world?”

Brazil? South Korea? India? If 60 years have taught us anything, it is that nothing is too ridiculous for Eurovision.